


One More Night

by yukye



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla (Web Series) RPF, Carmilla - All Media Types, Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Angel Wings, Anglerfish - Freeform, Angst, Automaton, Badass Carmilla, Baron Vordenberg - Freeform, Basilisks, Battle, Blood, Blood Drinking, Blood Loss, Blood Magic, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Broody Carmilla, Car Sex, Carmilla OMN, Carmilla One More Night, Carnival, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Character Death, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Creampuffs, Cthulhu Mythos, Danny OMN, Death, Dog Fighting, Dogboys & Doggirls, Dragons, Drama & Romance, Dungeon, Elemental Magic, F/F, Faders, Fights, Final Battle, Fist Fights, Goddesses, Gods, Grumpy Carmilla, Hollstein - Freeform, Human/Monster Romance, Human/Vampire Relationship, Hunters, Inspired by Novel, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Jealous Carmilla, LaF OMN, Laura Holster, Laura OMN, Lesbian Sex, Magic, Masks, Minor Original Character(s), Monsters, Murder, Mystery, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Mythology - Freeform, Mythology References, Near Death Experiences, Novel, OMN, OMN Carmilla, OMN Laura, One More Night Carmilla, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Mythology, Original Universe, Pain, Perry OMN, Post-War, Protective Carmilla Karnstein, Romance, Romance Novel, Rough Sex, SOLDIER - Freeform, Sex, Sex Magic, Sexual Tension, Shapeshifter, Shapeshifting, Shower Sex, Snow, Snow Fight, Soldiers, Sumerian Mythology - Freeform, Sweet Hades (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Swordfighting, Tension, Vaginal Sex, Vampire Bites, Vampire Carmilla, Vampire Danny Lawrence, Vampire Family, Vampire Hunters, Vampire Sex, Vampires, Van Helsing - Freeform, Van Helsing Style Werewolves, Violence, Werewolves, Witches, World War II, angel - Freeform, castle - Freeform, chlloe, chlloe dog, chlloe shapeshifter, creampuff, mattie - Freeform, sam cat, sam shapeshifter, soldier creampuffs, super powers, vampire / vampire, violent carmilla, violent danny, violent laura, violent original characters, violent tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:47:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 17
Words: 32,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23487040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yukye/pseuds/yukye
Summary: WARNING: If you are looking for a cute story, please DO NOT read this fic.Carmilla travels to her old home. In a whole new world for her. The 20th century embraces the vampire, who seeks a way out of her true place. Until she met Laura, a young woman who seems to have been made to shake her structure.During the war that devours the world ... what can a renegade vampire and, a chatterbox ahead of her time, expect?
Relationships: Carmilla & Laura (Carmilla), Carmilla / Craule, Carmilla / original character, Carmilla/Laura (Carmilla), Laura / Carmilla / Craule, Laura Hollis & Carmilla Karnstein, Laura Hollis/Carmilla Karnstein, Laura Hollis/Carmilla Karnstein/Original Character(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	1. Welcome vampire

Carm POV

In the middle of the second world war, after a certain vampire came out of her blood prison.

Carmilla was lost in the pages of a different kind of book. The clothes, although not much to her taste, attracted the least attention. For anyone who was running away from a crazy dean, getting attention was the last thing she wanted. The shaking of the cabin with the rails sliding in a thin layer of rain. It was still dawn when the train was stopping at the station. Only the landing whistle removed Carmilla from the words written in reddish ink. She closed the book without marking anything, stuffed it into the huge gray backpack, rough for a girl. He picked up her coat, wearing it over her white linen shirt, disguising her pants - not so common among women - she walked down the side corridor.

The doors opened to let a few users through that cold dawn. She jumped off the train’s rear, running from the ticket inspector. Travel for free. A chore that for a vampire was fun for sure.

The weather froze some water puddles, slipping some dogs, the people there, and some luggage with their owners chasing it. The scene almost started a laugh, but she kept silent with a little smile at the corner of her mouth.

She hadn't been in those lands in years.

Wandering among a few passersby, she passed through the huge gate with an arch at the top, leaving the station. An inviting smell hovered. She turned her head for that scent. When she crossed her eyes at a blonde girl who was walking across the street. At that moment, a boy smeared with dirt accidentally slipped and slammed his face into the vampire's chest. He apologized and ran in fear.

Carmilla sought out that young woman before she missed her pocket mirror. Distracted by the inviting image. A thief managed to get the piece of silver.  
But it wouldn't be like this ...

Eight blocks down the street, in an alley, sitting next to the trash cans. The boy wailed for not being able to eat the mirror. 

"Hey, Guto, what you have there?" A hideous man surrounded him.

"Nothing." He replied hiding the mirror. The beggar rich in robberies grabbed the boy, demanding the shiny object “Let me go! I caught it. It's mine!”

"No, it’s not!" Exclaimed the vampire at the alley entrance. The thieves looked at her. The boy with a terrified look. The man salivating as he laid eyes on her.

"Beautiful girl." He dropped Guto who was motionless on the floor. "Come here. I'm going to give you some candy " He approached. She rolled her eyes, and passed by the man, that didn't understand where she had gone.  
"Give it back to me," She said to the shaky boy. The man turned and made a very dirty joke at her back. "Shut up, before I get angry" He laughed and pulled out a knife.

"Take the" Before he could possibly know it, the man was with his upper body in a trash can, his nose hitting the metal bottom.

The vampire went to the boy and held out her hand. Guto understood and handed over the mirror without delay. But almost broke his wrist when tried fingering her silver bracelet.

"Sorry" He tried to laugh. She dropped him on the floor. She adjusted her backpack, heading back out into the street. Guto followed her for half a block before she ran to lose him.

She jumped on a roof. And before getting another parallel street. Once again that perfume invaded her nose, like the morning dew. Towards her came to that girl who distracted her.

Carmilla found herself distracted by the Galician who, chattering in the wind. With walking crooked by the various bundles in her hands. Pants - who knew, it wasn't just Carmilla - and a clumsy walk on the street.

"Excuse me" Said the blonde by leaps. The vampire was speechless. Domed "Excuse me." She emphasized in a tougher tone.

"Excuse me. Let me help you, miss." Chivalry hit, and the girl with the many bags, clumsily, accepted a couple of extra hands willingly.

"Thanks. They were very heavy." Said the blonde wiping the sweat from her forehead, after crossing two streets. If she knows that for her helper, those things weighed nothing “What's your name?”

"Carmilla." replied the vampire touching a few strands of hair of the other showing the neck.

"Mine is Laura." Carmilla came out of the trance." Thanks for the help."

"You're welcome. " The brunette covered her face, blushing. Laura would have said more. But the vampire's throat lumped.

The intoxicating smell took her. It was almost a drug.

"I found you!" Shouted Guto from across the street. "That was amazing!" Carmilla took the boy by the shirt collar and disappeared. Leaving Laura at the fabric store door.

Around the corner. Carmilla dropped the boy. She gave him a coin and turned to see if the blonde was following her. No. This one kicked the rusted iron door again, that always stuck to open. Tinking the entrance bell and dragging those heavy bags into the store, with a sign over the door, “Hollis” in gold on a black background.

Carmilla gave a slight laugh with the scene, from the clumsy kicking the bags.  
"Take it miss." The boy returned the coin. "Sorry. I didn't want to disturb you. I just wanted something to eat."

"With that you can eat." She said looking at the coin.

"Ah. You are not from here. But a dirty boy with money. Thief."

"But you are."

He frowned.

"I'm not that kind of thief. I just steal to eat. My parents taught me. That stealing is quite wrong. But out of sheer necessity, it is an appeal for life." Soon after, his eyes filled with water.

The vampire didn't have to ask any more questions. War. It was very reminiscent of the minefield, full of screams in which the hurries had been dragged. Running away from tanks and everything else that was shooting amid the screams and bombs. Guto left the coin on the floor and turned.

"Wait a second. I'll get you something to eat if you help me." She said to the boy, with very bright eyes to hear that he could eat. "I'm looking for the Karnstein. Do you know them?" The little thief looked at her and started pacing thinking.

"I remembered!" He jumped. "I know, they ran away a few years ago. But there are some remains of the castle if you want to look."

"Remains?"

"Ah. The Germans bombed." He said as a professor of ancient history.

"Take me there," Said Carmilla, but the boy had a little entrepreneurial spirit, held out his hand waiting for his payment before he play as the tour guide.


	2. A secret request

Guto was devouring the third pork sandwich. The third of five that he won to play the guide. Carmilla was right behind him.

"It's very tasty, don't you want it?" Asked licking his fingers. "Miss Perry has the best sandwiches, are you shure, not even a bite?" Said him about to eat another one.

"No, for the thousandth time. Pay attention on the way." As soon as she finished speaking, a piece of the road collapsed. There was the boy held by the arm, saved from the deadly fall. "What did I say?"

The vampire put him back on the road, following in silence, the path on the mountainside, cold and damp. They turned on another road into a high and very narrow valley. The twisted trees made Guto's chewing slower, with his breath off-axis. Carmilla listened well to the boy's heart, who, guided by hunger, accepted to help her.

He paused to swallow the last piece of bread and meat. Standing in front of the eagle banner perched on the black swastika, wrapped in red fabric. The thief shook his legs.

"There's no mistake here, but, but are you really sure, you want to go there?" He looked at her. A full stomach filled his brain with unhungry judgment. The boy's eyes flickered with dread, stories of families being taken, to feed a monster.

"You can go, I find the way." She looked back with a hard look. "I will come back and, I will go after you if you say you brought me here." Guto shivered when he heard that, he turned around, and follow the opposite direction of Carmilla.

The vampire passed forward the standard. Little remembered of what that road was like. There was a broken carriage on the second corner. Tumbled sideways into a tree, two wheels broken. The scene flooded her with memories. A young girl with a fragile appearance, in need of help, as her transport had fallen, and a poor little girl needed shelter.

"Cliché." Said turning her face to the silver sky. Some bodies of soldiers, buried in the mud, were unrecognizable. She tightened the strap of her backpack and started moving again.

The wind whistled between the top of the mountains, the twisted and dry trees flanked the entire way. The gray mud had been replaced by a cobblestone street - there was little to go - Carmilla drew in the air that had her nostalgia there and, at the same speed that the feeling came, left it when the smell of ashes and decomposed meat left her lungs.

The air became heavy. Facing what was once the residence of Count Karnstein. A majestic structure reduced to ruins. She walked along the rock path that cut through a supposed garden. The rest of a fountain at her right, the fountain on the left was a pile of gravel. A military jeep had entered the dining room window. The door was a curtain fallen from another floor, which was attached to the top of the jamb.

The vampire passed through the hall stepping on broken glass, belonging to the shattered chandelier. Black garnet marks adorned the walls. The non-existent roof over the staircase, in which swallowed her foot on a lame step. It reached the landing of the rooms. Funny or not, but her room had been disintegrated. She stopped at the edge of the floor where the door had been. Letting the wind move the scarf around the neck and the tip of the jacket. She jumped downstairs, landing on the table, saw the fireplace behind her. There were bodies incinerated on the floor. Each step was accompanied by more shards of glass - why a chandelier in each room ?! – now she was at the entrance to her father's office. Quite different from when used to live there. Now there were countless rusty drawers, filled with files, stacks of papers. Uniformed bodies of the highest Nazi ranks. It didn't take long to understand the house had been used as a military base.

She pushed the corpse of the headless general out of her father's chair, to sit, and dropped her feet on the table, crossing legs - saying goodbye to the place - she looked at the side of the bookcase.

"They found." She said when saw the open space behind the furniture. A secret passage. A strangled groan came from the darkness. "I'm going" Murmured to herself. Loosened the knot in her backpack. She picked up a combat gauntlet. Rolled the sleeve up to the elbow of her right arm to put on the piece of armor and closed the bundles. The fingers were exposed, facilitating the grip of a weapon.

Carmilla passed over the corpses and squeezed through the narrow passage. A horrible rotten smell caught her nose. However, a great determination drove her forward - her mind wandered through more recent memories, of desperate requests - immersed in the pitch, her vision sharpened, accustomed to the absence of light. The spiral staircase, increasingly slippery, debris, stamped red on the walls. Bones and what more than one shattered person could be found.

Her footsteps became an echo swallowed by the screech of the wind, which hit her chest. Finally, it had come along a ridge full of rustic old wooden doors - great-great-grandfather Karnstein's idea, an escape route in case they be invaded - The blood of soldiers, doctors and prisoners, made sure the place was not just a military base. But one of those Nazi experimental labs.

The vampire heard a moo over her head. When she turned around she saw an animal, fat and full of arms, and its mouth with hideous tweezers, it was glued to the ceiling watching it. She jumped back, but more of them were on the ceiling. Chewing leftovers, drooling, lowing, savoring the air of the new meal.

"You are disturbing me." Said between her fangs, surrounded, back against a wall. She dropped the bag in a less musty corner of blood and looked at the Aryan spiders. "Something went wrong here, didn't it?" Scoffed.

They screeched, fighting more with each other than with the prey to be slaughtered.

She reached over the backpack when something sharp jumped into her palm. Without warning, one of the monsters fell in half, exposing the entrails. The bugs attacked their victim. But the vampire was already flying in the fourth to be sliced. With the red in the shadows splashing against the girl. More and more of them fell with the severed bodies, or with the blade stuck between the snotty eyes. They were screeching in agony when she advanced on the last trying to run. The end of the blade nailed it to the wall.

Carmilla grabbed the sword hilt when she was finished with them. Breathed heavily, the beautiful weapon used, took its price in blood. But keeping calm, she headed for the end of the corridor. There was the room where she was born. Nothing in that room existed anymore. She stepped on a metal cylinder. Picked it up from the floor, feeling around, found a button that lit a beam of light.

"Is that what you use to illuminate now?" Said finding the object kind of useless. Bodies adorned the walls, hanging. "Beautiful decoration." She said with a twisted mouth. "But then what? Let's go. I went back where I started. Come on! Take me there." Ordered for the sword. But nothing happened. She looked at the blade when saw in the bloody reflection the eyes of a blonde girl.

An explosion took the vampire off the floor, covering her with the roof of the place.


	3. Chapter 3

The crows squawked. They poked the non-existent eyes of rotten bodies. When from the middle of the ruins, a huge fish broke the ground. Smashing rocks, everything just blew up. In the middle of this, very sharp teeth danced through the demolition dust, hundreds of them with a mouth almost so wide that it would easily swallow two trains.  
A kind of devil fish emerged from Grandpa Karnistein's moat. He scolded with half the body stuck in the bottom. He flapped his side fins in an attempt to free himself. The flashlight was swinging from side to side with the animal screaming. Eyes bulging in purple with the scales of the belly wanting to open. Certainly the screams were of pain.  
Carmilla was running from the stone tomb, with her backpack, and a lot of cuts and her clothes were blown off. She jumped out of the rubble over one of the few foundations that stood with its point stretched out on the floor. She stopped at the end of this. Watching the fish out of the water. Her fingers tightened firmly on the handle of the weapon that devoured it in combat.  
“Do not exaggerate. I'm not even seriously fighting.” She looked at the fish. “A moray can come here. And me who’s not from here, you don't take there.” She aimed the sword. The vampire took a strong angry breath, wondering how to kill that thing.  
Without any chance of reaction the creature's flashlight almost took off her head. Shooting Carmilla at the only remaining wall in the living room. She sank an inch into the rock. When fell upon her. She kicked the rubble until she was free.  
“Stupid worm!” Snarled. She furiously squeezed the hilt of the sword. The blade refused to obey her commands.  
The flashlight hovered over her hair and, in a swift movement, she was severed, spouting greenish blood. Carmilla clenched her teeth as the monster directed all the screeching pain. She fired at him, but the blade had only scratched over the scales, the vampire snorted. The flashlight's antenna - without the bulb - whipped it with blood.  
She stuck her fingers in that whip, being shaken. Over. Until after a violent collision with a metal beam, she seemed to have passed out. The thread threw it between yellowed and crooked teeth, being swallowed at once.  
Two full minutes passed with the fish on a full stomach. But on the third minute, his expression was of total agony. Green patches sprouted below the scales, transformed into purple sores, bursting each piece of keratin over the skin and finally tearing the monster apart in an explosion of flesh and guts.  
In the middle of the carcass was the vampire. From the feet till the top of the head, soaked in green of the creature's veins. In a single movement with her arm, she wiped excess blood from the blade. A human scent made her turn back by the road. Guto. But when heading there. There was nobody. The smell was not that of a grimy boy. It was a slightly sweet aroma mixed with another woody aroma, a light doping aroma.

***

There was no movement at Getroffen road. Rugged ascent to the foot of the mountain, narrow that only fit a car, or the tiny old weaving truck. A small light flickered through the heavy, dark forest that lined the precarious path.  
With the sound of bubbles and a rusty carburetor, the old wreck diminished near the only building at the end of the road. A two-story building with wooden walls and floors, lit by old oil lamps.  
“Daughter!” Mr. Hollis shouted with the blonde's fall as he jumped out of the truck. “Wait! Let me turn the engine off!” Said all fumbling to stop the last millimeters. At this point. Laura was already on her feet running to the pension door.  
“Okay, bye dad.” Said with half her body inside, trying to dismiss the man.  
"No. Wait, I have to talk to Mrs. Perry first," he replied, struggling with his belt wrapped around his foot, while the other held him on the floor.  
“Dad, Mrs. Perry must be sleeping.”  
“Not her daughter!”  
“Granddaughter.” Corrected. “Do not confuse, or she will increase the rent.”  
“If that keeps you safe, I'll even give you my pants!” He replied by loosening the heel of his belt.  
Laura entered the room, where Perry greeted her, and served her a mug of hot chocolate on the counter. Mr. Hollis greeted her but refused any drink. He handed a wad of money to the redhead, who was slow to accept. But he insisted.  
“Please, Miss Perry, take it." He reached across the counter.  
“But Mr. Hollis. This is too much, it has paid enough for almost eight years here.” She said polishing a mug of beer.  
“This is for an emergency. Anything happens, then take this, my daughter and whoever else wants, but get the hell out of here with her. Safe.” Laura choked on the chocolate with her father's somber tone, looking at him sideways.  
Grudgingly, but Perry took the money, since the man would not take no as an answer.  
“Don't look at me like that, it's for your safety.” Pointed him with a raised eyebrow. Laura gave him a nice laugh with a nice hug. “Be well, you see, tomorrow wait for me, I'll come and get you, don't you walk alone?” Said the father with his face level with his daughter.  
“Okay.” She replied rolling eyes, but without undoing the smile.  
They said goodbye outside with Mr. Hollis turning on that noisy tub, he calls hot rod. Laura returned to the salon when the rear lights of the vehicle disappeared at the beginning of the road, jumping with the holes. She closed the door and walked to the counter, taking all the air out of her lungs. When she came across a dark figure with a cloak, face resting in the arms on a table at the corner, her hair damp and tossed anyway, with a few bottles of wine around.  
Laura found herself lost looking at the figure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey soldiers, how it's going today?  
> The angler fish just to start, and a vampire covered with goo.  
> See ya soon at the next One More Night XD


	4. Nights of the war

The night remained in the most sublime calm that the foot of the mountain could offer. The orange lights of the lamps, hanging from the beams of the short roof adorned the front of the pension building. The ground that gave light squeals to slow palaces, and thunderstorms to the foot of an elephant.  
Laura was watching the dark figure closely. Strange. Not so much. But certainly, intriguing. Not that she ever witnessed others in the same situation, with their forehead on the table and the hurt drowning in the bottles.  
Surely a man would have been beaten. But a woman surrounded by booze, wearing tight boots instead of thin shoes. Daringly male pants. This would not go unnoticed by the blonde's eyes.  
Frightened she asked Perry who she was.  
“Do not know. She came here much earlier, got five sandwiches, and left. Came back a little before twilight, dirt in the mud. I couldn't even see her face. I sent her to the bathroom. As soon as she got back, and started drinking ... a lot.” Perry omitted the part of having cleaned up all the dirt on the floor. Mud, leaves, green slime that the lady of the house thought was vomit.  
The woman holding the blonde's eyes woke up, shoved a few bottles, and made a sign-waving her hand down, calling. Laura forced herself to walk without looking away from her. Stopped, leaning her waist against the edge of the table, looking at a face covered with a very dark fringe.  
“Please…” The voice was hoarse and sleepy. “…could you bring me more of these.” She pointed between two bottles.  
“But you haven't had enough?” Laura replied, and she didn't even work there. But her heart made she feel tender in front of someone so fragile by alcohol.  
“...I did not drink, it is not...” The head weighed forward. “... not even far...quite...” Carmilla looked at Laura's face. “...you have...a smell...” She slipped her hand to the belly of the Galician blouse. “...so good…” Said biting her lower lip and squeezing the blouse of the other between her fingers.  
Laura looked into those black eyes before they closed behind the curtain of hair, and their owner fell asleep leaning on the bench. Laura sighed without really knowing what had happened.  
The door beside the drinks opened behind the counter.  
"Could you not bring these things here?" Perry frowned.  
“Okay, change the boarding place.” Replied Lafontaine carrying a bear's paw. “Ah! You've seen me do worse, but look, this time it wasn't even me, who cut a bear's leg.” LaF held out a hand holding a skinned bear's paw.  
“That's why I said not to bring these things here, it's getting blood all over.” She said picking up a cloth behind the counter.  
Their discussion caught Laura's attention. Something about a trail of destruction, animals, trees, and even the ground. Scattered. LaF kept trying to argue over the lines of Miss Brushed Floor.  
“As it is, tell it all.” Laura entered in the middle of the chat. One highlighted the clean floor. The other tried to tell about the great and frightening troll trail. And the third supported the superfluous idea of an incredible adventure story for the local newspaper - three handwritten sheets for some drunk think it's toilet paper - but the journalist just flushed more.  
“I'm not saying no, but it should be very strong.” LaF showed the bear's paw.  
“Strong. What else?” The blonde was already pulling a shabby notebook out of her pockets and a pen with a chewed tip. “Tell me more.” Perry fell silent over the drip drips on the floor, their enthusiasm was like that of children when they unearth a bottle cap in the mud. She was well aware of Laura's curiosity, which had been further fueled by her father keeping her under the hawk's wings. And LaFontaine, well, they had grown up together, always left her at grandmother cares, who owns the pension and; ever; LaF parents always took a long time to come back from business trips.  
“It's fine children, come on to the kitchen.” Said Perry pushing those two.  
Laura sat in the chair opposite the salon door, LaF at the head, and Perry had his hands in a very long ladle beside the stove. The aspiring journalist kept writing down everything the veterinarian on duty said. The pension owner served them a plate of potato soup with some bread. And if it weren't for the scent and the hunger, the two treasure hunters would have spent the rest of the night talking.  
“Beware that it's too hot.” Perry warning came a little late for Laura, who, already waving her tongue out of her mouth, LaF raised an eyebrow at Perry, holding back her laughter.  
“Shut up LaF.” Laura scolded.  
“I'm not…laughing” It couldn’t be helped, hide that smile was impossible. And a cascade of laughter tumble on the table. However, a high-pitched sound silenced anything or person over the entire city.  
In the distance the warning sirens rang.  
“I already turned off the lights outside!” Danny came in almost knocking over the back door and locking it right after.  
“I will wake the guests!” Perry shouted running into the hall followed by LaF that, turned off the lights of the place.  
Danny and Laura too. They passed two more rooms, warning to protect themselves. When almost down the hall. The blonde ran back to the salon even under Danny's protests. The alarm still sounded, so there was time, her knees shook from thinking what would come after the warning noise ended.  
She ran to the door, bolting it. Her eyes shifted to the corner table and, as soon as he touched Carmilla, the alarm stopped. Avoid flooded her chest at the sound of planes hum. She grabbed the vampire by throwing herself under the table.  
Bombers.  
Panting, her chest pumping fear, she closed her watery eyes, clutching her head in her hands and, uselessly ordering her brain to expel the memories of the crashes in her panicked mind. Frightened yelps were heard in the darkroom. When he then felt a pair of hands go up back, her torso being wrapped in something warm and soft.  
“...your smell is very good…” Carmilla's breath warmed Laura's neck, who tried to process everything.  
“There you are!” Danny yelled at the hall entrance. The lumberjack grabbed them both by the collar, dragging them behind the counter. “What were you thinking?” She faced the journalist. “It was to protect yourself, and...” Danny saw Laura shiver curled at the sound of airplanes. The Amazon lowered her shoulders, sat down next to the other, and pulled her to rest. “It’s ok, it will pass. It'll be okay, don't worry.” She clutched the ax between her fingers while calming her friend with the other hand.  
It was a calm winter night. Only one more.


	5. Sore morning. A hangover like that

As a calm walk somewhere in the woods showed up the sun. After another common night in Treffen. Morning light came through the windows like an almost transparent veil, painting the shape of the windows on the dark wood floor. Carmilla was on the same floor. She tried to distinguish between the frustrating last day and the wonderful dream of being able to go to the other world.  
When she felt her nose hit the cabinet door below the sink, she found that; aside from the miracle of the sword working, everything else had been true. A random visit of a fish, a useless blade that did not obey. The frustration inside seemed to want to open her ribs. Then pulled the blanket to sleep until her back hurt.  
Blanket?  
She squeezed that blue fabric, thick as a coat, and that tasty perfume invaded her senses. She turned into the counter, back against the curve and the legs into the kitchen. Danny and Laura slept sitting up, with the tallest cheek on top of the shortest head. The lowest was closer to the vampire. Carmilla got up on her hands, looking at the girl wearing a jumpsuit with a ridiculous puppy applique over her front pocket.  
Someone knocked on the front door or tried to knock it down with such energic punches. Carmilla held the head that threatened to explode with those beats - a good hangover - she hopped over the counter but ended up falling with one foot curled on the stool. She snorted to open the door, imagining a thousand and one ways to smash someone. But once again her plans were thwarted, as she barely slid the bolt and the door threw violently to the floor, making her even more confused with the head popping. When she realized there was a very strong man on her, screaming like a mammoth.  
“Where is my daughter?!” He shouted. “Where is my Lau...” His speech had been interrupted by an ax stuck in the ground a few centimeters from him. He turned to the counter, where Danny recognized him and was relieved to miss her aim.  
“Dad?” Said Laura, pointing a wooden spoon between her fingers. Sherman jumped off the floor, ran to the counter pulling his daughter next to him. “I'm fine, I'm fine.” She pleaded, while her father turned her upside down, looking for injuries.  
“Good morning, Mr. Hollis,” Perry said down the stairs in the hallway, followed by LaF adjusting her suspenders. The lady of the house went to the kitchen. Danny took the ax off the floor, thinking about what would have happened if she had got it right. Luckily her aim was not so good.  
“What a warning yesterday, but I heard nothing but planes. Was there anything in town?” Asked LaF being ignored as she held out her hand to Carmilla, who got up without anyone's help.  
"Only planes and sirens," answered Sherman, with his hands-on Laura's neck. "Not a miserable bomb. This war could end soon. Almost eaten my pillows thinking if my daughter was safe.” He looked sideways at her, who was sitting on a chair. “I think about how the store should be. The sirens scream, the lights go out, and the Trollers attack.”  
“Oh my god, the store,” Laura mumbled with her forehead on the table. “Last time…” Last time, she spent the day sweeping the remains of the window on the sidewalk.  
"Here," Perry called with a few mugs of latte and cookies. Laura took the heavier tray and handed out the mugs. Everyone sat in a corner, but still close enough to talk.  
Getting to the last glass. She looked at Carmilla, practically passed out on the same table as last night. Laura filled her chest and went to her.  
“Hey,” She called next to the table. “Here, it will get better,” Said affectionately to the tangle of hair that didn't even turn to her.  
"Let's get going," Said Mr. Hollis after finishing breakfast with his daughter. He offered Laura's friends a ride. Danny accepted a little awkwardly - she almost killed the man a little earlier - LaF picked up her coat at the kitchen door, giving Perry a discreet hug before leaving.  
The four went outside. All that remains is the owner of the pension and the brunette who died at the table in the corner. The vampire woke up to the sound of that washing machine choking on fuel and almost tearing off her head. Carmilla looked at the mug with her face in her arms, discouraged when she remembered the other day. Perry asked if she was staying. And the vampire saw no reason not to stay there.  
After all.  
The plans were uncertain, and growling temples didn't help. In a nutshell, everything was settled. Paid enough to stay a few days, and Perry guided her up the stairs, opening a windowed corridor to a patio. Turning left, the corridor had the wall open to a dense forest behind about three stacks of hay.  
"This is it." Perry opened the door to the last room. Carmilla entered the room, ignoring the mealtimes that her landlady explained, nodded at the end pretending to have heard everything.  
Finally, alone, the girl fell face down on the bed, right by the window. She reached out and pulled the curtain for the least possible light, which did not happen because the room was still well lit. But she was so sick of the drink that pressed the pillow over the back of her neck, her face on the sheet, and forced herself to sleep.  
Frustrated.  
A bad hangover.  
It wasn't a good day for Carmilla.

***

Discouragement kept Carmilla in bed all day until she couldn't take it anymore. The clear blue sky, gave way to the dark mantle with the moon. The vampire woke up, sat on the bed looking at the room. A bedside table adorned the headboard, stuck to the corner of the wall. A cupboard guarded the door hinge. And another window - that is why the room remained lit, against her efforts to keep the curtains closed - the second window faced the wall of rocks that continued the hard climb of the mountain.  
Carmilla went out into the hall, jumping over the railing while putting on her coat. Staggering a little on the landing, she went to the trees, until she didn't see the pension anymore. From there she took fourteen counted steps. Going to a steeper part, going up a little until you reach the branches of a fallen tree with a gap in the wood. She picked up her backpack that she had hidden. It still smelled of green blood. She aimed the sword tucked deeper in the trunk and preferred to leave it there; for now.  
She returned to the corridor without anyone seeing that jump. Again tossed on the bed, she took her book from her backpack and opened it in any page. It was an old and worn book. The pages yellowed like an old man's teeth. With the skinned edges, covered in red, leather and a slight metallic aroma accompanying the writing that only Carmilla's eyes could read.  
The adventures of the dark kings. She remembered stopping when King Ensom rode his black-haired lion to kill the enemy general.  
With the support of Winter, the dark king defeated the Karkhof army. An arduous battle that lasted one summer, but just in time for spring.  
The vampire already knew the stories by heart and, inside out. She never gets tired of reading the same thing. It was what she wanted. That world, not merely fantasy. A world denied by that damn blade. Then Carmilla rested an open book on her chest, fitting the middle of the pages around her neck.  
"Those eyes." She remembered the last image that the blade had shown. "Blonde." But Carmilla didn't know what that could mean, or if it wasn't a betrayed of her vision. She rubbed her forehead, boil the neurons that hadn't died from the alcohol. Until someone knocked on the door.  
Those crashes woke up the neurons that were hungover, which were almost all. The brunette held her head with a roaring "I'm going". She grabbed the handle with a noticeable urge to pulled off. When she finally opened the door, she found Laura taking a couple of steps back because of the scare.  
"Ah...hi." She spoke awkwardly, even been she who knocked on the door. Carmilla looked her up and down waiting. "You know ... I wanted to apologize for my dad in the morning. Did you get hurt?" Shyness and concern were clear.  
"It was nothing, I'm fine," Replied the vampire, closing her eyes and grabbing the jamb.  
"Are you serious? You falling made me jump off the ground." She exclaimed. That made the brunette's forehead almost give birth. "Are you okay?" A vein popped up in Carmilla's temple, pulsing all the anger that was squeezing for her. "Take it." Said the blonde handing a cloth bag. "Perry told me you didn't eat today, so.”  
"Thank you for worrying." Carmilla closed the door at once and narrowly missed the other's nose. She stuck her back to the door, dripping till the floor. "You dumbass" She murmured as she tried to hold her brain about to explode, by slamming the door. A few more minutes followed, before hearing Laura's footsteps leave the front of her door, moving further and further away.  
The vampire rubbed her eyes and stood in the darkroom. She looked from the door, the window to the courtyard, and saw the light come on in the window aligned with hers, on the other side. The Galician of just now closed the curtains, giving a brief pause to look ahead, without knowing it, she looked directly into Carmilla's eyes in the shadows.  
She closed the curtains, leaving only a slightly blurred silhouette of a girl undressing. Without noticing. The vampire had her forehead against the glass, her knees on the red book. The light went out. And Carmilla found herself wondering what the hell she was doing.  
"Seriously Laura, we go without you!" LaF came out in the courtyard. Laura appeared at the entrance behind the biologist, calling her next to Danny. "At last, let's go before anyone finds it."  
"Who will want to find a bear trail?" Asked Danny trying to buy time for Laura who, still tied the boots.  
"Dead bears trail. I do not care. I want a sample of what made this trail." LaF replied. "But we have to go just before the trail gets cold."  
"Achoo!"  
"Not that cold Laura." Said LaF. Perry from the top window asked about the adventurers' coats, and they all answered:  
"Yes, we're wrapped up."  
Carmilla thought it was a good idea to follow the Samaritans, maybe a little air would improve her hangover and sulk. She took the coat. When opening the door, she came across a bag on the floor. She stuffed it in her pocket and jumped onto the roof. Just waiting for the group to leave to follow the investigation of her tracks.


	6. On the bears trail

Getroffen's road was half a kilometer behind the three musketeers. With the dense and heavy Karnstrong forest, yielding its yellow-eyed owls, to ornament with the creaking and rustling of tall ancient trees. The moon stuck in the middle of the sky cleared the ground and, on the side of the trees, so that the girls would not hit their noses. But it was good to be careful. Snow, however little, did not match steep descents like that. The trail they followed pointed to the northeast, flanking the southern face of the Alps.

LaF pulled the end of the line, had a good memory for maps, geographic or anatomical. It didn't matter. The fire-haired Samaritan was the type of person whose books got bored with her. Laura in the middle trying to spot any troll signs.

“Watch out,” advised Danny being the last. The tall woodcutter knew how treacherous sprigs of damp grass could be dangerous. “How long till we get there?” Asked worried about landslides.

“Not much. We are very close.” replied the biologist.

“Are you tired Danny?” Laura smiled over her shoulder and received a smile in the corner of the other's mouth in response.

“No, and you?”

“I'm great.” Laura went down about twenty centimeters with her right leg stretched down, while the left was buried in a hole.

“I told you to be careful!” Said the woodcutter pulling the field journalist. “Are you okay?” She took the leaves off the blue cloak.

“Yes, thanks. My God Danny, you are cold!” She noticed when she felt the skin of her arms under the blue flannel shirt with green threads on her shoulder.

“Ah! Is nothing.”

“Are you nuts?!”

“Relax,” spoke with her hands on the blonde's shoulders. “I sweated a lot today; I didn't want to walk by your side stinking like a bear.” Laura gave a shy smile. The woodcutter made her face warm.

“Guys, hi. Here.” LaF called the little tenderness couple, from the top of a crater. The biologist entered the hole. Laura and Danny caught up with her. “But what?!” The doctor gasped, looking everywhere.

“Okay, what about the bear?” Asked Laura.

“I also want to know,” LaF said looking for the animal to which that paw on her belt belonged. However, there was nothing but snow, overturned mud, and some trees with the base exploded. “Ah! Damn it, it can't be! Where is it?” Questioned digging the ground.

Danny watched the trees with the wood jutting out like spears. The Amazon didn't even blink, looked at the floor like someone reading a book. She walked over to some mountain bushes. Grabbed something stuck in the lower branches and frowned, even more, when unearthed with her feet what LaF had found the beginning on the other side.

“Danny.” Called LaF.

“He came here.” She said with all regret in the speech, holding a tuft of bear’s hair.

Laura looked down at what they had found. And near the doctor there was a huge frozen red stain. The mark seemed to drag in the direction of the bush, where the woodcutter wished she had a piece of wood to get both passed out and, away from the great danger in her heart. Reluctant, but Danny guarded her friend's backs. Knowing very well their genius.

The passage hidden behind the bush was a gap between two high peaks. A gentle climb took the girls. The higher they went, the more frequent the red marks were in the grooves on the walls, on the floor, and occasionally, LaF would go down to pick up tufts of brown fur.

***

Carmilla followed the group to the crater. Having to wait for the onslaught of laughter to pass, on the blonde’s account. She stopped in front of the red sludge on the floor, looking at the blew up woods.

“That was me,” said to herself with that blur and the destroyed trees.

She entered the same slot behind the group. Seeing the same smears of blood, she murmured a “That wasn’t me.” – Angry and thirsty. Still covered in green. She threw the sword so hard that it opened that hole. She punched the trees discounting the anger. And she fought with that huge bear, until stuck her teeth in it and, drinking everything she could take ... not even far from satisfying it. – at the end of the path, the passage opened in a shed, equipped with a water wheel.

Carmilla jumped behind an old cart with the door squeaking. A few more seconds and Danny spent supporting Laura who was almost throwing up, while LaF followed them. The three disappeared around the curve of the passage. She stood up, enjoying the building, probably older than she was.

Mud marks up to the middle of the walls supported a simple strip of green paint, separating the white snow from the dark floor. Carmilla opened the small gate to enter - a crooked old fence with barbed wire - closing it carefully before proceeding - a futile delicacy, an inside joke for your amusement - went through the door without having to open any more. And from there saw what would have caused the blonde's discomfort. The wreckage of what a day ago had been a living thing ... some bear hair. Remains of torn muscles. A butcher’s shop.

The vampire pulled the air into her lungs. Releasing her arms from the side sighing and returned to the door. She had left the bear sleepy, but she had not killed him. There was something bad lurking, she knew exactly what it was, and would be a pain in the ass if found them.

“I hope they are just passing through.” Snorted when she felt a bump under the coat. She reached into her pocket, taking out the small package that Laura had left. “Cookies.” She found when opening that small bow. The vampire snapped up one of the vanilla disks and walked off without giving much importance to the house of horrors. The pieces of chocolate melted in her mouth while the dough was not pure sugar. And smelled like her...


	7. The howl of the wolf

\- One More Night – 7  
The stormy wind shakes the forest leaves. The snow had dried up like magic, the magic of the mages, the "heralds of light", the "pure", cornered eight of the dark troops. A dome of light made of spells squeezed the dark ones with no chance of a reaction. The dark soldiers cowered, trying to take each other's space, for anyone who dared touch the light was pulverized at the same time.

Angel Kallar, the master of magicians, demanded the location of the leader of the shadows, the "evil" in person - without any answer - the dome was squeezing even those who fled it, more and more men started to turn to dust. A howl erupted in the air, a shadowy figure had torn one of the wizards in white.

A sword had been driven into the dome, and a second shadowy figure was clinging to the end of that blade. Carmilla. In a backward leap, the spectral glass broke, freeing men from their distress. One by one the mages were split in half, and the vampire held one of them so he wouldn't escape.

"Show up! Demon!" Shouted Angel, then a warrior with a messy blue hair stopped in front of him - Demo-mo-mon - Stammered the man.

"It's not wrong" Replied the warrior in a very hoarse voice and tore the man with an ice sword.

Carmilla smiled at her immediately. The last mage was weeping in despair, trapped in the vampire's hand.

"Go and tell everyone what you saw." Carmilla pull and pushed him into the mud. He fled soon he get up crawling into the forest. The dark soldiers looked at the blue-haired warrior with great respect. The sound of a wolf howling in the distance, while the cold wind took the road, winter was there. An epic story, but the epic broke at the sound of the choking of a truck that bounced with every smoke expelled from the carburetor. The image returned to the pension's ceiling over the bed.

The vampire huffed as she rested the book on her neck, rolled over to the edge of the bed, putting on her boots, grabbed her coat, and when the engine's choking finally ended in the city, the brunette went to the kitchen, something to occupy her teeth would be nice, considering she slept all day.

Entering the bar, she found something wagging it's tail on one of the tables, giving barks of joy at eating a bowl of bolognese pasta. The brunette sat at the back table and tried to wait for Perry, which didn't happen. Pot sounds were heard from the kitchen. The little dog sank to the eyes in the sauce with his paws, because it was smaller than the plate, pausing for a moment to smell the air, the puppy looked at Carmilla who did not return his attention, even after hearing something fall on the wooden floor and, the paddles full of sauce rise on her foot to the grumbling of a happy puppy.

"Get out," She snarled at him.

"Carmilla," Said the excited blonde, leaving the kitchen with some bread for the stray puppy.

"Hm ..." replied the vampire in an angry whisper, stifling any words from the other. For a brief moment, their eyes spoke even though the distance. The wagging tail of that animal was pissing her off. Then she gets up, not caring if might kick the furball.

"Wait ..." Laura's sentence was cut off by the knocking on the front door.

***

Somewhere must be open. That's what motivated Carmilla to go down the mountain. With or without war, people drink, like her look for something to chew. She walked to a farther part, out of sight of anyone, and took advantage of her speed. Arriving on the street that should be the busiest in the city. More doors closed than open.

Although Austria was peacefully annexed to Germany, times were changing. The war seemed to make the winds go in favor for the Allies, shaking the Axis. The fear of bombs from the skies and, deserters were the newest nighttime attractions. However, not even all the despair in the world would be able to close the doors of Punkt. A tavern that, had an owner ahead of its time.

"If I die, so I died" for him, it doesn't matter, the man was not afraid. Not even German's Chancellor would close those doors. The hinges were rusty, exalting the smell of alcohol and metal. The people there were either like Mr. Punkt, or just like Carmilla, that didn't give a damn about foreign matters like the war.

She sat at the counter, and without saying anything, the bartender sent her a Feuer whiskey shot. The vampire turned the glass, it was very good, her throat was burning, as expected from a good whiskey. For a few more minutes, she watched the third round of the arm wrestling. The contestants, one was a very large man, with a plaid shirt without sleeves - a lumberjack - his arms were two logs. On the other hand, the second man was thinner, but he looked at the top lumberjack - a mechanic. A crash was heard from the intertwined hands, after another drink and, the creaking of the table under the true axis of power surrounded with the hands of the spectators and their bets. Even Carmilla seemed to get excited, shouting at the drunks to push.

"Look what the cat brought," An unmistakable voice said, "Mircalla Karnstein," The vampire shot at the man whom those words came. "I never saw you so loose" A man in a gray uniform, black boots and hair irritatingly parted to the side, he approached.

"Doran?" Incredulous she said. That trash still alive.

"But, who could even touch you there to see it. With those dresses and a mother like that?" He left the anti-Semitic helmet on the counter and sat down next to Carmilla. "I heard you had been killed,"

"It's not that easy," She turned the glass at her lips, trying to keep up the line with that idiot.

"Then; betrayed your own mother for a girl’s tail in a skirt?" He laughed, looking sideways at the vampire to demonstrate the least reaction to the unpleasant speech.

"She's not my mother," Said looking at the door fixedly. "And my life does not concern, you bag of fleas.

"Ouch!" He squeezed his chest. "That hurt, what a bad mood. Come on, for people like us, it's better not to get attached. One way or another, we will see their death. Whether by the hands of life, or ours. There's no use crying." He shook his head in disapproval. "Did you cry when she died?" Laugh that bastard.

"Monsters don’t cry;" Carmilla finished the last sip and walked to the door. "Thank you for paying the bill," she said as she left, passing five soldiers entering the tavern.

"How did I let pass this?!" Charged her thoughts. That bag of fleas and cow shit that was Doran. She had met him when she was still Mircalla, and he was just another novice werewolf from a very low branch of the clan. For a few moments, she remembered why she had been locked up. Screaming and in tears on a young woman's body. She remembered her touch, what she said, and what she was willing to do, that name hovered lightly in her memory until it ended when she entered the boardinghouse.

***

Carmilla had her hands on the rail in front of the bedroom, thoughts spinning endlessly in her mind. That air tightened her lungs, the place for people, the lie of her two previous lifes crushed any feeling for this world.

"Why?" Asked looking at her feet. Then two paws appeared in her field of vision with the barking of a puppy. "Go away, or I'll kill you," The mutt didn't even listen and started to chew the boots laces. "I said go away!"

"Chello. Where are you girl?" At the same moment Laura entered the corridor, the puppy had been kicked out on from the second floor. "Chello!" She screamed running to see where the animal had landed. "What’s your problem?!"

"Now? It's you,” She replied sarcastically. The blonde didn't even listen and hurried to rescue the puppy.

Carmilla returned to her room, leaving Laura in the hurry to go downstairs. The blonde almost went through the door without opening it, going around the outside after unlocking everything, had to stop to visualize the sunken yellowish fur among the falling target. A distress bark guided her to the miserable furball.

"There there girl," Released a sigh of relief when realizing that nothing serious had affected the puppy. "Come here." Gently accommodated Chello in her blouse, wrapping in her at arms. Some of the snow had soaked Laura's hand. But the girl did nothing but try to heat the meatball. She felt a warm tongue in thanks.

"Hey Laura, what are you doing down there?" LaF shouted from the roof. The doctor held an acorn of Christmas ornaments, strings of pine branches, with spiky green grass. Some pine cones with bows dangled over her elbows - but not a wink - Danny crawled over to the outer edge of the roof after hearing her sweetheart's name.

"What is her problem?" Mumbled the blonde stroking the puppy.

Perry on the other side asked LaF about who she was talking to. Of course, the answer made the owner of the pension shout that the journalist would come out of the cold.

An hour later they were all gathered inside the bar. Laura was still watching Chello run from side to side, digging her claws into the floor and falling on her own as she tried to bite her tail. Perry arrived with a tray full of cookies and hot chocolate.

"No lights. But what a strange Christmas this will be." Perry said.

"Tell me about it. Not even the firewood is selling. Except for dark pine. It makes less smoke. But it's hard to find more." Commented Danny biting a cookie.

"But hasn't that been normal for the past four years?" Says LaF remembering the dates well.

"No. Until last year the lights shinned that week. People bought new clothes. But..." Once more said, Perry.

"Since the turn," Said Laura. For since the infamous violation of the non-aggression agreement, Germany was leaving its sovereignty.

The conversation stayed that way until everyone was entertained by Chello running towards anything that fell on the floor. When without warning, strong and insistent knocks on the front door cut out the air.

"Broo are you there?! Broo!" Shouted Kirsch.

"Calm down, I'll be right open," LaF announced unlocking the door.

"Broo where are you?!" He screamed.

"Keep your voice down, people are trying to sleep!" Perry snapped.

"Kirsch, what are you doing here?" Danny asked.

"I found you!" The boy made a real fuss asking the strangest things, others didn't even make sense, it ended that Danny can only hear about where Theo would be.

"Have you looked in the bathroom?" The woodcutter replied certain of the NO he would say. "Come on." Danny grabbed the coworker's arm and dragged him out.

"Danny the coat." Laura rushed to hand it to the brave redhead.

"It's not so cold today, keep it and warm it for me." She finished with a wink to Laura, who had the most flushed face. It was the door closing that, LaF and Perry started to poke Laura about the redhead.  
The night was calm, with the lights off and...

***

"You called him, didn't you?" Carmilla threw Chello on the floor of an empty room. The furry moaned, crawling with a broken paw. "Come over here and cut it out!" Howled the brunette stepping on the tail with a white tip. "Cut it out you hundred grams of the liver." Chello turned with eyes full of water, with the pat up, but the vampire did not blink.

"Sheesh, how heartless you are," A voice came from the puppy that, leaving the fur and the small size, human hands and legs took the place of the fluffy paws, giving way to a woman with green hair at the shoulder, pointy ears, and olive green eyes. "Calm down there, kitty." She waved her hands in front of her naked body.

The vampire did not want to hear about it, she immediately kicked the ex-puppy to the wall and grabbed her throat.

"Now, I will say just once: Get the fuck out of here." Said Carmilla very close to Chello.

"Ah calm, what is it? You know, I know she's beautiful, but...ok, ok you don't have to squeeze my neck so hard. I’m sorry, you're into it, right?" Muttered Chello, her throat crushed by the vampire's fingers, who suddenly released her.

The green-haired woman massaged her jugular, snorting against the wall, while her body without the soft fur felt the first chills of the Austrian winter. She cursed the Olympian gods for that cold weather, curling her tail between her legs and tightening her arms around her trembling body.

"Cut it out the crying and get the hell out of here" Said Carmila going to the room door.

"Fuck you break my arm and send me out in this cold?"

"Don't pretend anything, or I torn you apart." Warned her.

"Oh no, please, feel sorry for a poor hungry puppy," Chello joked with a pitying face, even if the old centenary in front of her did not see. "Damn you like her, I envy you.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Carmilla turned at once with her eyebrows almost glued together.

"Laura of course" The canine looked into the vampire's eyes. At that moment, both of them froze, but it was Carmilla who was enraged by the presence of those useless things going around and eating the local bear population. It was then that she realized what part of Shifter's lines was about ...

Laura was nowhere near the inn, and those things were around.

***

With great difficulty Laura and her snow boots crawled on the way down to the city, in the middle of the moonlit forest, she gasped with the effort that a meter and a half of snow demanded the passage. Her instinct as a truth-seeking journalist propelled her in the face of all the cold, grabbed the branches of some low trees to help with the painful steps, she would arrive in the city with all the certainty she had.

"I'll find Theo before everyone." She already looked like Sherlock, adjusted the gray hat and, passed the index finger with the thumb below the nose, as if it had the mustache of the great detective. Without warning, the branch on the other hand broke, causing the detective to roll about thirty meters of snow. She unleashed a resounding “Ouch!” massaging the back of her neck when she noticed the absence of her hat. "Oh no, where is it?" The girl looked from one wing to another. "Shit!" She was sorry to feel the black grease at her fingers. "Laura, you dumbass, you are disguised and investigating! You can't take off like that!" She barked to herself while trying to get the black grease off her gloves and, hoping her black hair didn't have a blonde flaw in the shape of a hand.

She slowly got up trying to stand, clasped her hands on a support branch, when a wolf's howl caught her attention when she turned in the direction of the sound, it came across a dark trail as if something big and heavy had passed there. little by little, it must have been really heavy and strong, because the snow was turned up to the ebony soil, other marks might have been mud.

"Is it LaF's bear?" Clouds of steam came out of her mouth; the trail was hot and called the curiosity of the whole being of the girl.

Attentive eyes watched her when Laura took the first step towards the most suspicious snow path.


	8. Four problems, and you - part 1

The air seemed colder, Laura could feel her body trembling in her tummy-damp clothes, her gray coat was almost black with the dark stains of melted ice, the clouds of smoke coming out of her breath made her look like a dragon snorting fire.

“Achoo!!! Oh no, come on, the trail is hot.” She said between sneezes. As crazy as the idea seemed to be, staying out of the snow was the best you could choose, as the inn was already far away and, with the body shaking, put your feet on the path - made by a walking night excavator, it can only be - a shiver went up to her spine, she looked back at a bad feeling inside her that was not coming from her wet clothes.

The wind sounded frightening at the top of the trees, a humming sound came from afar and, approached it quickly, closer and closer, with the strongest sound, accompanied by the flapping of dark wings, as if that would come to get her from life, a death sound wave. The journalist took off running on the open trail, the wave of sonorous dread chased her, something brushed the side of her face when she noticed that it was a crow squawking for her flesh, it advanced, and she fell with other crows flying towards it.

Screaming, she managed to free herself by leaving her coat behind and, digging a tunnel-like a mole, a meter later she jumped out of the snow, running like a mad, the crows chased her. The journalist fell into a hole in a gourd once more, from there she saw a passage behind a bush, without thinking twice she ran up that hill, the path was a little narrow, but it was as if the girl knew where she was standing - a miracle.

Laura swallowed when she faced the house of horrors that she had visited with the girls, but the animals behind her were not there and went down from the top of the passage to enjoy her soft flesh. With no time and no choice, she ran through the highest snow and, put her knee in the miserable little fence hidden by the white flakes, but managed to jump over the misfortune with barbed wire, then threw herself at the loose door and closed it quickly, holding the door with her back, she felt the bites and bumps of animals on the wood. Crying in despair, the blonde felt them stop their attacks, but not the hunt.

"What is happening?" Asked as she slid on the wood until she sat on the floor, her breathing unrestrained from the most terrifying moment of her life.

Tears covered her face, stinging as her left cheek rolled with the cut, made by earlier pain, her bones ached with the cold and panic that had overtaken Jesse Owens at the 100 meters, without understanding, without knowing, but fearing as if she knew exactly what was there.

They were still quacking muttering outside when Laura laid her eyes in a huddle near one of the central beams before she could name the strange object, she pressed her fingers to the damp floor and, it was kind of warm, felt her pants soaked. It seemed to be what she thought, she was three years old again wetting her bed, she put her hands in front of her face and, it was nothing from her bladder, it was dark ... dark like those mud marks on the snow trail, but...

"Mud..." The voice disappeared as she aimed over her fingertips, the source of that dark and lush liquid, coming from the mound, summing up from the hanging animal rest on the top of the beam. A quack pulled her out of the horror movie, just to throw her into a nightmare, a crow had entered the roof, allowing a beam of light to reveal what was hanging from a hook. "Theo..." Laura gasped watching the strings of meat from the woodcutter swaying from his broken body, that on the floor was the bottom.

"...lau...ra..." He spits blood with wide eyes, wheezing for the rest of life left.

She would scream, but terror smashed across her chest, ripped her lungs, and choked her throat. The crow in there croaked before he attacks, but something attacked him before, dark, big and, chewing the feathers of the living animal. Whatever was looking at her with eyes glowing in flaming orange, although the body looked like a man - very large and strong, the eyes were not human.

Laura barely moved, her legs had become part of the ground, her hands were locked in the lush black, and her body was more petrified than the city of Pompeii itself. The man, or creature, ended the crow's screams of agony, closing the molars in the animal's chest, he grunted, sniffing it, the vapor that left his mouth was illuminated by the light behind him, delivering his infernal origin. The birds outside were making a fuss, drowning out the grunts of the brute less than two meters from her who...

"I found you!" Carmilla snapped, opening the door without warning and taking Laura out of there by squeezing her wrist. In a few seconds, they were both in the middle of the forest after the passage "Fuck! Do you want to die?" The grumpy one didn't even look at Laura while cursing until the eighth generation of her ancestors.

The journalist was unable to pronounce a word, trying to understand where she entered that nightmare, the trees passed like little white streaks in an old photo, and her mind throbbed like a screw. The brunette was rude without any kindness, squeezing the other's wrist almost breaking it, she was as angry as possible, that bag of fleas that was Doran, the green bitch in the inn, the flying carnivorous chickens, the walking hindrances that dressed of people and, worst of all, this stupid girl in danger ...

Just like that Carmilla stopped halfway, suddenly questioning her line of behavior in the last two minutes, when she opened the door of the shed and took out that idiot which she pulled like an old bag.

Laura bumped into the natural brunette's back and noticed the various feathers decorating the cuts on the coat, which loosened her fingers on her wrist.

"Carmi ..." The journalist tried to speak, just before the hellish creature grabbed the shoulder of the first in line "CARMILLA!!!" She screamed at the rolling demon stuck to her.

Some sounds of fighting and killing beasts came from the darkness between the trees, sounds of flesh ripping, and wood being broken. Everything was quieted with a crack of bone-breaking, Laura looked for any sign of life, wishing with all her strength that the grumpy girl was going up the mountain towards her.

"Carmilla;" She called in the darkness, expelling the rest of the heat from her lungs, Laura fell to her knees, just the vague idea of losing that strange heat, her soul was in agony. "Carmilla!!!" She screamed when she saw a figure on the way up, but his eyes were glowing.

It was too much, she no longer had the strength to flee. The demonic figure used his hands to run together with feet. Game over.

The figure fell to the side, a second shadow leaping over the first, beating it with a big branch. Laura's vision was based on her conscience leaving her body.

***

Laura's eyes hurt, closed, it was the licks of the small and fuzzy Chello who returned her courage to regain consciousness. It was the ceiling of her room, it was the blinding afternoon light.

"My god you woke up," LaF said relieved.

"Woke up?" Laura asked with the body crushed. Chello had her tail up, licked, and jumped on the blonde.

Did Laura try to fit thoughts, dreams? Her aching body, countless dressings, fought the mediocre question. LaF was returning to the room with Perry right behind.

"Laura," The innkeeper ran to hug her. "What a scare you gave us! Lucky your father left town, if not..." Together LaF and Perry put their hands on their foreheads, imagining the huge mess that Sherman Hollis would make for his daughter's condition.

"No, please, one war is already huge disgrace mess," Said the scientist, certain that Laura's father would be able to declare the 4th world war.

"My dad?" Laura was not yet in the middle of everything, but she was also massaging her throbbing forehead. It throbbed even more like Danny's abrupt walk into the room with two axes in hand and Kirsch right behind with a cup of coffee.

"Laura!" Danny threw herself on knees at the foot of the bed hugging the blonde, who squeaked into the redhead's arms pressing her bandages. "Sorry, I was so scared yesterday and today, when you didn't wake up," The woodcutter spoke with tears in her eyes.

"Calm down Danny, I... what...what...happened?" Laura asked lost at everything.

"What? You do not remember?" Danny said incredulously, but the blonde's face was so innocent that no one would say she was lying. The woodcutter untied the detective's torn coat and lost hat from her waist. "Laura, what happened?"


	9. Four problems, and you - part 2

The moon was preparing to give up the sky for the sun, Treffen plunged into his last sleep before the rooster crows, the end of the night followed in the most sublime silence, the contagious and intoxicating sensation of the mountains, with the lite breath of the wind at the top of the mountains.

"What's going on with me?!" The vampire questioned in her mind "Why did I go after her?!"

Carmilla buried her fingertips in the window chest below Laura's room. Her thoughts guided her to the second when she heard the dog mention the blonde's absence and, as it was after feeling that, Laura was not at the inn. It seemed like a big bad joke, orchestrated by her keen senses - well stocked - so what was it? When she found herself in confusion. She held Laura's body unconscious.

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Why?"

Much more than four reasons why tormented the brunette's mind. The journalist's little heat was even enough to burn Carmilla inexplicably, her fangs itched, she wanted to devour every inch of that girl, all her blood and, whatever else she had, the vampire wanted.

In a trance for a few seconds. The blonde in disguise, so helpless in her arms, her hair smeared with black grease staining her chest, her waist turned from pants soaked in melted ice and blood.

What a horrible picture ...

"How beautiful," She said when looked at Laura's face so close to hers.

Returning from dreamland, Perry, and LaF's big rush taking care of Laura was heard from downstairs. By that time, Carmilla had done what she could, wiping the blood and black grease from the journalist's hair, and red and black remains still tinted the vampire's body.

"But what happened my god?!" Perry holding Laura's hands while rolls of bandages jumped with LaF along the needle, thread, bandages, band-aids, and Merthiolate taking care of the first aid.

"Why? Why did I worry about that?” She asked with the sensation of the blonde's hair between her fingers.

Downstairs, the vampire released the parapet she was crushing in her hands and turned to the empty courtyard with a loud sigh.

"You will not die... stay another night..." She said before disappearing in the forest.

***

Five kilometers up the mountain, with the shovel in one hand, and one of those things body at her back, Carmilla walked with the snow above her knees. It was no big deal, a German deserter on her back, it was a threat that tried to kill her; your Laura.

The soulless vampire slapped herself as soon as, she thought her Laura. The thought tortured her, but it just had to close her eyes and, she felt the heartbeat of the Galician as if she had her face on Laura's chest, lost in an embrace.

"Carmilla Skandratt, stop it! And bury that useless!" She shouted at herself and, a little snow fell on her legs. "Shit... why did you have to be so big?" She scolded pulling the buried legs.

All that pain in the ass, she might as well drop it where she killed him, but Doran would certainly sniff the body and find a way to use against her and wasn't a good idea something liked with Laura. Or else, would be trouble.

"Just stop that Carmilla! Stop thinking about that stupid girl! And just bury that thing," Roared digging a hole fifteen kilometers farther up the mountain.

The sun was soft and pale. Carmilla had just finished burying the dead ham when at last it was over, she remembered Theo's body, and it was gone, but until then they would certainly believe the story of the killer bear, the death of humans mattered little. There was nothing to be done and, unbeknownst to her, Laura's heart-pounding was the only thing that mattered to her, at least.

***

About ten miles down the mountain, more precisely in the last quarter to the right of the stairs at Mrs. Perry's inn.

"I don't know Danny," She answered with everyone staring at.

"Laura, seriously," Danny was tightening her torn jacket.

"Danny, please, don't you see that she's exhausted?" Perry argued with the tense situation.

"I know, I'm too, but I need to know what happened," Danny replied holding the disgusting bitterness of what she saw. "What do you remember?" The journalist didn't even know where to start, or if she should, everything had been too absurd to be real.

The journalist tightened the sheets on her lap, looked at the bed and the cold burns on her fingers, then looked at Danny's dark circles, her dirty clothes with something dark and with a metallic aroma.

"Laura, please," The woodcutter insisted. "What happened?"

"Look, Danny, maybe she hit her head," Perry tried to calm the nerves.

"No, it didn't," LaF said just correcting and, looking at the innkeeper's frown. "Oops, but she didn't,"

"Laura, I have to know," She asked holding her bandaged hand.

"But, I don't know," The Galician tried to say something, but it was still impossible to do it without murdering sanity and, not to mention, a certain person.

"Carmilla," Commented Perry arguing with the others and, was the only word that Laura fished from the conversation.

"What have with her?" Asked the blonde one.

"She must know, she brought you," Replied LaF.

"What?" The blonde's words were swallowed by the angry lumberjack's questions.

"Carmilla?! Was she, who did that?! Was Carmilla that hurt you?!" 

"Calm down Danny. She's hurt, but any other dumbass would get frostbites walking in the snow. It was Carmilla who brought Laura yesterday, and it looked like a fairy tale scene," The doctor looked at the ceiling reminiscing. "Carmilla went in carrying Laura in her arms," LaF was mimicking Carmilla and using Perry as an unconscious Laura in her arms.

The journalist couldn't hide the blushed face.

The woodcutter was plunging into anger. Laura can see everyone's lack of sleep, except for Kirsch, who seemed to be just fighting a hangover. She remembered the crows, the creature; and Carmilla, in the same second the brunette appeared behind the woodcutter.

"Carm," Their eyes locked with an entire room between them.

"You!" Danny growled, addressing the feisty 1.60 and lifting her against the wall, tightening the collar of her shirt. "You did that!" Their faces were level without the brunette touching the ground. "What have you done?!"

Carmilla felt the edge of the ax in her throat, her senses soaked with the blonde's presence were shaping at the moment, with each vein jumping ready to smash her attacker.

"Danny stop!" Shouted Laura holding the ax handle and Danny's shoulder. "Stop, please! She did nothing to me," Her body fell forward. "she saved me..."

"Laura!" Danny called to be pulled by Kirsch and LaF, while Laura fell on Carmilla cushioning the fall.

"Enough!! Exclaimed Perry. "Now, let her rest, you two come with me!" Ordered aiming furiously at the woodcutter and the vampire.

Kirsch let go of the enraged redhead and, taking Laura to the bed completely unconscious, LaF took care that the bandages did not open.

"Come on, both of you, get down here!" Perry sputtered from the bar.

The two went down the stairs exchanging angry looks, but nothing was more frightening than the frown of the owner of the place. Nothing worse than an angry mother. Danny sat at the counter, Carmilla took the bench farthest from the two.

"Girl you here?" Surprised asked Guto handing him a glass of vodka. He offered the lumberjack a glass. The boy seemed delighted with the vampire, doing everything without taking his eyes off her.

"Do you know her?" Danny asked.

"But of course, she is the woman I worked for, and I got five sandwiches as payment," He replied happily. "I was her guide until..." A drop of sweat fell down his temple with the piercing gaze of the vampire with an eyebrow arched.

"Until?" Asked Danny.

"Until here. More vodka?" He replied nervously.

"I needed a place to stay," Completed Carm turning the glass in her throat.

"Really?" With disdain between the teeth, the woodcutter turned the glass almost as fast as the opponent.

"Yes, just that, what else?" Cold as usual Carmilla turned another glass as soon as Guto filled it.

"I saw the trail," Danny continued the undeclared drinking competition.

"Whatever is, I don't care?" Another glass.

"Danny," Perry called in an attempt to stop the unnecessary interrogation, in her opinion, and went to the kitchen to handle dinner.

"I went looking for Theo with Kirsch yesterday," Another glass and faster than the brunette. "and I found him," She looked at Carmilla without taking the glass out of her mouth.

The vampire narrowly showed something, as she could see Hellsing's face in the eyes of the woodcutter, who knew how to play with words without saying them, but Carmilla also knew that game and, she saw herself facing the daughter of the Duke of Offenesfeld at the age of 14 in a ball at the Palace of Versailles - a skilled 17-year-old player.

"Good," It didn't matter to her. Danny stopped herself from yelling it.

"I found him dead," The woodcutter had waited for Perry to walk away to tell such news.

"My condolences," The vampire found the difference with the duke's daughter, as she would not have said anything and still would have taken away the truth. "Drunks, right?" It was Carmilla's turn to see the woodcutter with the glass on her lips trying to hide her anger.

"Yeah, he drank a lot," The redhead was playing with words again. "But tell me what happened last night, you brought Laura here," Another glass.

It was evident that Danny would not be convinced by any word from the vampire.

Carmilla stammered. The damn countenance of that cunning girl at the ball, but the vampire's speech had been interrupted by a crash from the stairs.

"I went for a walk!" Shouted Laura, finishing the stairway. Kirsch was despaired running after her.  
"I swear I tried to stop her but," The boy fumbled and neither he nor Danny understood how fast Carmilla went to the journalist on the floor.

"I wanted to walk and find Theo but, I slipped, then I rolled the mountain, must be there then I lost my coat and hat and…"  
“And I wanted a bit of fresh air when I found her," Carmilla started as soon as Laura looked at her after the and. "She was freezing, must have passed out with the soft snow, could be soft, smooth, and yet can kill you."

"Fresh air?" Danny shot her taking the bottle of Guto, who filled her glass. The woodcutter squeezed the ax towards the vampire when Perry returned from the kitchen.

"You saw Danny, everything explained," Said the owner of the inn who had sensitive ears.

"That's it," Laura looked at Danny, who wouldn't contest her words.

"Where's LaF?" Perry asked with a tray of cupcakes.

"Sleeping," Replied Kirsch.

"That's fine, everyone should rest," The big mom suggested. "You two can stay here."

"No, I'm going home." Danny turned to the door.

"Danny," Laura called, noticing the redhead's sudden movements.

"It's okay Laura, I have things to do, rest and don't be alone, take care of her Perry," The woodcutter picked up her coat and, Kirsch went with her to the woodcutter's dormitory.

"Guto, please get the dishes in the kitchen for me," Perry said before offering help to the patient.

"I'll take her," said Carmilla, putting the blonde's arm around her neck.

***  
"Thanks," Laura thanked as soon as they entered the bedroom. Chello hopped between her feet.

The brunette kept silent staring at the window, helped the patient to sit on the bed, just before they were face to face, while the dog climbed on the bed.

"Are you okay?" Laura's voice invaded Carmilla's mind.

'Shit' She thought with what she wanted so close.

"I'm great," She answered, and Laura was already pulling her hand.

"Liar, you're hurt, aren't you? That thing bit you, what was that thing?"

"Nothing Cupcake," Carmilla pushed the blonde's hair away. "I'm fine, you don't have to worry about anything," Those words came out warmer than they should have. Unable to look the other in the eye, the vampire turned the door.

"Wait, let me see it," Laura stood up in a failed jump, ending up grabbing between the vampire's shoulder and neck - just the left side. In automatic response, Carmilla turned and grabbed the Galician falling with her on the bed on top of the puppy.

With their faces so close, Carmilla on top with her eyebrows curls in pain. Laura then released her hand from the wound that had dyed her fingers red.

"Carm," Laura lifted her face slightly, brushing her lips on the other's lips by chance, but at that point, the vampire was paralyzed, any movement of her would end with the blonde's neck in her mouth.

Luckily, Chello's tearful and loud grumbles made them leave that position. They sat on the bed with a small space between them.

The sun almost disappearing in the mountain range gave way to the night veil, Perry put the finishing touches on dinner, certainly, he would not even call Laura, it would be better if she slept. The curtains in the Galician's room remained immobile, the closed windows allowed the darkness to take over more quickly. With all the certainties that would be in that heart, Carmilla did not hear a single word from Laura.

"Please, you have to explain to me," Laura said.

'Why that? What's going on with me?' Carmilla asked in her mind, she looked at the puppy on Laura's lap."That bug, all these problems, and you..." She looked at Laura's eyes.

The eyes of both were linked like magnets even in the shadows, with the same magnetic attraction the vampire was approaching, for an instant she forgot everything and, her eyes flashed red, the blonde gave a slight spasm behind, but the vampire held her by the arms. Laura had frozen, if she didn't know what to think of what had happened, what will she say now in front of another creature of the night?

Their gaze dropped once the vampire followed her predatory instinct towards the blonde's throat - her veins were sharp as ink on the paper - pulsing fast, to the sound of the ragged breath coming from the half-open mouth. Carmilla's fangs hid in the shadows.

'What is it?' Laura wondered, feeling something sharp brush her neck.

The brunette's hands slid down her torso, down her ribs, stopping her fingertips inside the bunny print pajama pants.


	10. You wouldn't understand, not yet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUU!!! Sound exactly like a wolfe.  
> Hey Creampuffs, another chapter for you, enjoy it.

Their breathing filled the darkroom. Laura felt something hot and wet between the two ends pressing against her neck, and Carmilla closed her eyes savoring what her next meal tasted like ... or could it be more than just a meal?  
"Ghaaa!!!" Screamed the vampire with Chello hanging by the canines on her hand. "Get out!" She got up from the bed trying to get rid of the furball.  
The puppy's growls, furiously denting her hand, that just broke the spell, Carmilla shook her hand, but the brave little puppy refused to let it go, going against all the violence of the furious girl. Laura tried to help but ended up getting the furball on her face when she drops off that hand.  
Carmilla's right hand soaked in black crimson in the dim light and, with the complete daily abandonment of the sun, the pitch swallowed the place. The journalist sat on the bed holding the furry that kept barking at her owner's almost eater.  
"Your..." Without the blonde being able to react, the brunette brutally grabbed the puppy by the neck and, like a genuine tumbler, began to cry desperately for the touch being carried into the hall. "Out of here!"  
Kicked off the second floor again.  
"Carmilla!" Protested Laura, and she had lost her breath, with her head racing and her fangs itching. She ran to her room, slamming the door behind her, the sound of Laura's heart drowning out any noise, tormented, Carmilla picked up her backpack and jumped the balustrade running into the forest.

***

Above a peak near a hollow log. Objects flying in all directions. The moon did not light up as well, thin as the disturbing smile of a lilac cat.  
"Where are you?!" Roared Carmilla turning over her sturdy backpack, taking everything out, the sword was thrown to one side, clothes, books, some jewelry, a small wooden box. "Where are you?!" The world seemed to be able to end until she found the little silver disk with a mirror, the same one that had belonged to Guto for a few minutes, she looked at her reflection as if the mirror could melt at the sight of General Zod's heat vision. "Now tell me! You have to tell me!!!" She cried for the object.  
The light completely disappeared behind the dark clouds. The outline shone softly, the black reflection took shape, she saw the silhouette of a person sparkling in waves of a lake, long hair passing the waist, for a few seconds she thought it was her real mother, but the hair was golden as the sun.  
"What?" She asked.  
The faint moon changed the image that, revealed a woman dressed as a warrior, a light armor, similar to those described in her books from another world, the vampire gasped when she saw Laura in the mirror. Howling with rage, she threw the mirror that hadn't broken in the face of disproportionate strength, she grabbed the sword that decidedly repudiated her, locking in its sheath.  
"What?! Now that I want to see you don't show me?! You know what, go to hell!" She threw the sword away, sitting on the floor, clenching her knees. "What's going on?" Asked only for herself. "Why don't you let me go?! I don't belong here!" As much as she shouted at the worked sheath, the blade did not meet her calls and, along with that mess, she thought of the Galician to invade her plans.  
She remembered the last person who made her feel that way. Many years ago, from how she learned the value of blood, she could not drain anyone, because otherwise, she would gradually or very quickly lose her ability to think, lose all her mind.  
Her false mother tried to steal her choices, encouraging rampant killing, blood without feeling is like salt water, it will only make you feel more thirsty and, in the end...  
She had long been used to eating the blood of animals, it was not the same as humans, but it was better than losing sanity - that was her real mother who taught this.  
Carmilla pressed her face against her hands, what was she thinking? Her fangs burned with desire for the blonde's blood, but why? She barely knows her, so what was wrong, why this sudden desire? She wasn't there to get involved with anyone, she just wanted to decipher the secret of the damn sword and go to the world she belonged in true.  
"Carmilla, what were you thinking? You are not here to fall in love," She stared at her feet in the snow through her fingers, she did not believe what she had just said. "...love"  
The clouds passed in the dim light, and the forest plunged into the rustle of frozen leaves, and dancing shadows. The vampire watched the tips of the trees sway, the timid wind was heard and, the cold familiar hugged her, the bite holes complained after the lack of affection towards them, a crimson thread dripped in the snow hanging from her hand and face.

***

The cold swallowed Laura into the forest. After going out the window, the girl staggered a few more meters before her injuries forced her to rest against a tree.  
Her wool scarf garnished the neck and another blouse with the gray coat over it.  
A little further away from the inn, she had begun to call for Carmilla, her voice was high or hoarse, her body ached, but something inside moved her forward, not a determination, but a stark need of...  
"Carmilla!" She called in good sound, looking from side to side, looking for each tree and, calling out for the name she learned to like to call.  
Almost a kilometer and a half into the forest the Galician was forced to take a rest, sitting on roots with the tree trunk as a back. From there she looked at the sky with almost no light, the pattern of clouds passing like the veil torn from the corpse bride.  
"Laura Eileen Hollis, what are you doing?" Impersonating her father. "What do I want with her?" Her questions seemed simple, but even for humans, these are tough questions.  
"What's your name again?" A bald, pale man appeared from behind the resting tree.  
Laura jumped away from him besides the log.  
"Oops, sorry, but I couldn't leave a beauty like you here alone, yet someone with such a beautiful name," Said the military man among smiles that were not pleasant, his teeth were abnormally crooked, or it was a light that did not favor him.  
Filth! Laura thought, her name was a secret in the war.  
"Easy cuttie, come on," He held out his hand dressed in German leather. "I just want to help," He smiled and, as dark as it was Laura noticed the Nazi uniform, the bald man with a wicked look and horse face, the bones of his face were jumped too much.  
"Thank you, but, I'm fine, I'm just..." Three others like him came out behind her, uniformed, with the swastika stamped on their shoulders, she turned and, to her despair, found faces similar to that of the beast she had devoured Theo.  
"Don't run," Said the first, who was thin, his uniform was leftover his shoulders, but his pointed ears lifted the stature of dry fern.  
He warned, but she ran, and the second stepped forward grabbing her from behind holding her arms, letting her legs kick the air. A burly brute with thick, long arms to drag the elongated fingers of the earth.  
"CARMILLA!!!" She called for help, screamed for release, they laughed with grotesque and crooked fangs.  
"I would not scream cutie, it is dangerous with this snow and, I think you do not want to die buried," Said the least animalistic of them. She screamed again, infuriating them, the man with pointy ears going over his head tried to silence the enthusiast, but she imitated Chello and dented his fingers, furious he punched the Galician in the stomach who vomited everything she had eaten.  
The bald man seemed to be the leader, everything he said the others obeyed, by the embroidery on his arm, he was a sergeant.  
"Come on, it's too cold to eat her here, let's go to the wheelhouse," He said to Laura's despair that, there was an image of Theo's corpse stamped in her memory, next to a neon pink sign written: You are the next!  
Two and a half seconds after the declaration, a fifth creature enters the scene kicking the sergeant in a tree that warped due to the impact, the others looked in amazement, behold, the brunette appears, furiously breaking the eared chin on a right hook, then it is the turn of Laura's jailer, but Carmilla is surprised by the fourth member, a quick little who bites the back of her leg.  
"Fuck!" She steps on him until she almost takes his head off, at last, he falls. One down, she looks at Laura who is released by the brutes, they face each other, Carmilla and he locks hands in a dispute of strength, she turns him in the air but is taken along, both end in a noisy fall, the little one returns from the dead and, grabbed her legs, the strong one pulled her arms in the opposite direction, and suddenly they were playing tug of war, using the girl as a rope.  
"Stop it!" Shouted Laura at the first crack of the brunettes bones being stretched.  
"What? Stop now? Don't even think now that we have two cutie pies like you," Said the sergeant, salivating when taking possession of the blonde's hands.  
"Get away from her!" Carmilla roared.  
"And you will do what vampire?" Disparage the monster licking the blonde's fingers, the brunette freed her right hand with the gauntlet and pulled the strong man's arm, but in response he pulled her arm with both hands, dislocating her left shoulder.  
She screamed with hatred, but the fury was about to break out in her actions when Laura squeaked with the sergeant biting her fingers. Carmilla's eyes flashed red as flames, her body tensed against the strength of the monsters.  
"Death..." Without finishing calling the name, the blade already passed through the air over his eyes.  
She grabbed the sword and, in a horizontal movement, separated the head from the footer painter's body, turning back she cut the strongest from the waist to the shoulder, the eared man tried to bite it even with a broken jaw, but the girl just finished pulling off it when she put the blade edge from the top of the head to the chest. Enraged, she looked at the bald man that shited himself out at a disadvantage.  
"Wait a minute," Asked the sergeant throwing Laura at her. "Wait,"  
Carmilla didn't even look at Laura clinging to her. Her eyes kept on shining carmine. The last Nazi pulled out a pistol, firing at both of them, but the shot ricocheted off in the gauntlet, who retaliated by throwing the sword in the middle of the coward's forehead, trapping him in a tree.  
"Carmilla," Laura called grabbing the black coat, both hearts, and breaths uneven, but when the journalist looked up, she saw the image of the reddest and fascinating eyes of her life, but not in a good way, because the brunettes canines popped out as fangs, with a bit of maple watering their lips.  
When she finally understood the situation, the Galician was running away with everything she could, towards the inn, panic made her lose any dodge quality, flipping over after hitting half her body on a tree and landing in the snow. Before she could get up, a pair of very strong hands pinned her wrists to the floor.  
Out of her mind, Carmilla housed the blonde in the middle of the snow, without letting her escape, muffling the screams with her fingers and, exposing Laura's neck, tending her head back. Was fast, the soles of her boots slipping on the ice flakes, her knees soaked with melted snow, and her whole body against Carmilla's chest. The cold windburned and froze, but they were nothing compared to the red-hot iron that burned around her neck, with the vampire's fangs.


	11. I'm the most useless type

"Run, run, run Laura!" Shouted a woman behind the little blonde in a frilly dress that looked like a muffin or a cupcake with whipped cream. The little girl ran happily in the green fields of the Austrian summer, her father came back with friends on a hunt, carrying wild ducks tied by the neck surrounded with their hunting dogs.

The little one was running bound to her father who stands for a big hug. Mr. Hollis was a real daddy bear, in a beige leather vest, a blue plaid flannel shirt.

"How is my little wolf ?!" He said excitedly. She smiled toothlessly.

"Strong!" She replied raising her arms showing geckos muscles.

"And fast," Completed Mama Hollis. "Little wolf?" She asked to her husband's eyes, what a name for a lady.

"Of course, a little wolf, my daughter is not trapped for anyone and, look, the teeth have already fallen, will the fangs of a giant wolf grow?" He laughed with the little one howling like a wolf cub up his bald head.

"It may be, but she will still run away from Mommy because if she gets caught, I will kill this little wolf with tickles," Her mother would close her fingers on the young girl's back, who would jump off her father's shoulders and run again.

"If catch me, I'm much faster, the wolf is faster than the bear!" She hummed.

"Let me see it, am I a bear then too?"

"Yes because you are married to daddy bear, and I am the wolf that plays with the bears and likes cookies!!!" Shouted with open arms when her mother reached out and tickled her daughter.

Laughter mingled with a stunning hum from the mountains, airplanes brought the dreadful blackened sky overhead.

"Mommy," Called in a shaky voice, but Mommy was gone, the green and the flowers were dying with the atrocious cold approaching, bringing the storm and the shadows in the woods, when singing of those crows and beasts revealing themselves for the child.

"Run, run, run Laura," Cried the forest. So did the blonde disbanding, but suddenly she was falling face down in the snow, her arms full of bandages, her body ground, and despair to evade any thought other than death.

"you smell so good," The voice hovered behind her and, before she could react, once again had her back pressed to the other's body, her neck exposed, but with the difference of clearly feeling the other's hands roamed her legs and ribs when she felt the zipper of her pants slip and dared to look back, her throat boiled like a kettle forgotten on the stove, that hands seemed to go up inside her blouse and everything else fades out like an insane nightmare.

***

Laura woke up sweating, staring at the bedroom ceiling, her body weighed a ton, each muscle seemed to have received a massage from Wreck-it Ralph itself, with difficulty pulling her right hand from the fluffy covers of mountain deerskin, but her hand had wobbly movements, she stretched the bandaged fingers with the throbbing phalanges.

"Wasn't a dream?" Sighed closing her eyes, arms over her forehead. Her left arm seems stuck and she faces the side.

"Don't move, might open the wounds," Said that hoarse and sleepy voice.

"Carmilla!" Laura jumped up and squeaked in pain right after.

"Stop, you lost a lot of blood," Carmilla hugged the blonde's body more like a sleeping kitten.

"But what? Wait, tell me... What?"

"You want to ask, don't you? What I am? What were those things and, what will happen?" The brunette smiled slyly next to her, who couldn't hide the answers she wanted. "No problem... I don't think I can deny it now, but I'll just answer three questions, so you can ask," Her eyes they showed absolute confidence while seducing.

"You,"

"Bram Stoker, it can be, but don't take everything, he put more history than he told," She smiled closer to the blonde's face.

"Those are,"

"Growlers, better be careful, in wars they are the most common out there," The brunette stroked the journalist's chest with two fingers, reaching down to her belly.

"and," Laura stammered.

"And now. I'm still thinking about what to do, you are so weak that any fun can dismount you," Joked with a mischievous smile and, for some reason the blonde gasped with the effect of those words, unable to hide the regret of being left alone under the covers.

"Beautiful" Blurted out when she saw the vampire's naked body out of bed.

"Thank you," Carmilla did not turn around, or her face would be more reddish. "You are not bad either," She said in an ironic tone to mask the desire to admire the blonde's body, also not dressed. Laura curled up on the blanket trying to cover herself.

"Ah! What we have done?!" Asked with the voice disappearing at the end of the sentence for noticing the absence of her clothes.

"Not much, I was exhausted and," Carmilla was wearing her pants. "I'll get you something to eat until then, don't go out, or I kill you," Said finishing getting dressed and leaving the room.

Laura can see the shadow of the vampire's feet under the door, the shadow stood there a few moments before disappearing, and yet the blonde ignored the threat of death outside the room, on the contrary, she was so immersed in the cold and seductive atmosphere that, barely felt any danger.

***

The door closed behind Carmilla, who for a few seconds, waited for her thoughts to order.

"I stopped," Said low to just her. The demented fight against the soldiers and. "Her blood," The vampire plucked her lips, remembering the taste of the journalist's veins.

Just needed to close eyes, think or stop thinking to hear Laura's heart clearly pounding upstairs, or speed up with a simple look. A strange feeling sworn by death in her heart seemed to take shape at the mere mention of the girl in the dog suit. She was just coming back from the kitchen when the disgusting dog presence soared over her.

"I thought I kicked you out of here," Said the vampire in the hall, Chello then jumped from the rafters standing in front of the brunette. "You should find a shirt," Commented raising an eyebrow at the girl to boycott clothes wearing.

"I tried, but they always slip at the fur," She replied stretching her naked and muscle torso. "And I came to see how Laura is, I didn't like the idea of her being eaten alive, but apparently either you," The ears of the girl with green hair moved.

"Just say what you want, I'm not kidding right now," Snapped the vampire holding a tray with a bowl of pumpkin soup.

"You really like her, not even noticed," The dog pointed the ceiling in circles with the index finger. Carmilla spasmed when feeling the various crows perched around the inn, was not in front of them, but was there. "I think they are standing guard, they even let Miss Perry and Guto come back from the market, but any other, like the dumb though guy, they leave it lost and return it to the city," Chello said.

"They are waiting,"

"Yeah, they must be on the way. Huff, I hate clan fights, they suck, nobody wins and I'm always in the middle," Scratched her green hair.

"Will you be in the middle again?" The vampire asked without looking at the dog, who laughed at the question.

"You know, it was the same thing in Rome, I should have run away, but I'm already tied up with you," She stared at the brunette, even if a small battle could happen, it was better an ally than none.

Chello scratched her hair again and threw a needle at Carmilla who sidestepped, the flight tray in the air. She grabbed her opponent's fist, already lifting her in the air over her head, Chello locked a leg on a roof beam and pulled the vampire off the ground. The brunette tightened the leather belt on the other's pants and went up to another beam, grabbing the tray in the air. Both returned to the floor and smiled sadistically. They could match up, or they simply trusted their instincts so much that they were not afraid of the other.

They measured, for sure they would kill themselves one day, but for now, and for a greater reason, a clan of nighters on their way, they would not try to take each other's life.

"It will get cold," She said to the vampire with the soup bowl intact.

"I hope she likes it," Carmilla choked out the words. Chello smiled cynically, enjoying the vampire awkwardly.

***

A few minutes after leaving her bed company, Laura struggled to her feet, took a good look at the room, which was Carmilla's, cold and empty, even though the fireplace lit with the crackling fire did not fill the gap that she was present in that atmosphere, unlike her room, full of stories and welcoming air.

With difficulty, she walked over to the mirror over the fireplace, wrapped in a sheet, turned on her back, letting the cloth fall, taking a fright with the various dressings on her body, but burning in her neck made her pluck the bandage on. Afraid, she pulled the fabric and, little by little, revealed the mark of the fangs, surrounded by some other marks.

"Kisses?" Noticed when she saw reddish marks around the bite, she poked a little and, it was painful, not only the fang holes, but the reddish spots, which revealed bruises, as if she had hit her neck, but how did she hit? And how did it hit twelve times? "Hickeys?" Her eyes widened in the mirror trying to see better when she approached. "Hickeys from Carm," She swallowed those words, her mind screamed innumerable numbers and, without knowing her heart said nothing, just jumped, an inexplicable heat climbed her legs, strolling among her thighs, and a little bit upper.

"Laura!" Carmilla shouted as she entered the room and saw the blonde's robe on fire.

Again the flight tray, but this time vampire didn't come back to pick up, that was left to the dog chasing as a Frisbee.

In a tug the blonde was without her Greek fashion and, the brunette playing the fireman on duty. Luckily, less than a foot had burned.

"Are you okay?" She asked crouched by the fire and, she was helpless facing the image of the journalist trying to hide behind her own arms, and this time it was impossible to hide the blushed face.

"Carmilla," Laura tried to control her heart that was pumping all the blood to her face.

Chello sitting between the two rolled her eyes at the scene and tried to fix it by taking a bite out of the vampire's seat.

"Ghaah!!! This time I'll throw you from the roof damn bitch!" Scolded dragged the furball out.

"Wait, don't throw it," The blonde asked holding the hands that held the puppy.

The brunette released the dog, without untying Laura's hands, her eyes merged, with the fire reflected in them.

"You should go back to bed and cover yourself, it's cold," Said Carmilla trying to control herself.

"Achim!"

In the same hurry to put out the fire, it was the direction of the vampire practically carrying Laura to the bed and covering her.

"I should throw you," said Carmilla leaving the tray on the bedside table and helping Chello to get on the bed. Without wait, the puppy entered the blanket and nestled in the blondes belly. "It's warm now, try to eat, then I'll take you to your room.

"To my room?" Choked on the soup.

"Yes, God forbid I run into the woodcutter, she would be furious," Justified. "What?" Asked the other's expression of disappointment.

"Nothing, I just thought some nonsense things," Laura looked down at the lump of fur on her abdomen.

"What kind of nonsense? Want to stay and be my nonsense toy?" Smiled.

"What?!"

"You came up with the idea," She laughed with complete accuracy.

"I said nothing!" Shouted the blonde pulling the covers.

"So what were you thinking?"

"And what I'm supposed to think ?! There is a vampire in front of me who marked my neck!

Then it was Carmilla's turn to be distressed, did she see ?! She asked in her mind, remembered how she had arrived. The care for the blonde's body and how she felt guilty about those holes in her neck, but the biggest regret came after the twelfth mark she had left around the bite when she realized what she was doing.

"Was it really you?" Questioned to the speechless brunette. "Won't you kill me? Or eat me? Am I going to become a vampire? But I like the sun, but you don't melt in the sun. Wait, can you turn into a bat? I can become one, they are cute, or not, I don't know, I never saw one close enough, will I become a yellow bat?" She chattered more alone than for Carmilla, and eighty questions later, while Chello cleaned the rest of the soup in the empty bowl. "Then?"

"I can't guarantee the second one, otherwise it's all no, cupcake," Carmilla smiled, Laura didn't even remember the order of the questions. "Let's go to your room, soon Diana will be here to see you,"

"Danny, Laura clarified that, admitted the resemblance of the friend with the Roman goddess of the hunt.

***

"Really?" The vampire asked incredulously.

"Don't look!" Laura replied dressing with Carmilla facing the door.

"Cupcake, seriously, who was in bed with you? Ah! I've seen everything," The brunette took a shoe on the back of her neck.

"It was different, I wasn't even awake!"

"What time do you sleep?"

"Ah! Shut up and let's go!" Laura passed her and tightened the knob, but had to stop feeling dizzy.

"Easy," Carmilla supported her, Laura gasped, because her body had not yet recovered from the stress. "Come here," Gently the vampire passed the patient's arm over her neck and carried her legs.

With no chance of protest, the journalist has carried down the hall.

"You could have carried me like this when we went up the stairs,"

"No, it was going to be kind of weird, they would find strange, all this strength."

"But the other night when you brought me, it was like that, wasn't it?"

"It was different, I was worried and..."

"Worried about me?" Laura's eyes flashed as she passed the stairs and, the vampire tried to hide the regret for saying those words. "Were you worried this time too? Although, why don't let me with the girls this time?"

"Because I couldn't explain it around your neck," Carmilla turned her face to the side trying to open the door to Laura's room. She gently laid the girl on the bed and covered her.

"Sleep well Cupcake," Carmilla could not believe what she was saying, until then she had only been genuinely affectionate to a person who was no longer alive.

"What kind of vampire are you? You don't look like one," Laura said a little confused by what she had learned and what she was facing.

"Who knows cupcake, maybe I let you find out," She replied passing the doorway. Going back to her own room with Danny up the stairs. Carmilla ignored the woodcutter's useless growls and turned the corridor rubbing eyes. "I'm the most useless type," Replied to herself, thinking about the blonde one.


	12. Something between us

The snow was lower than the unusual for Christmas, but a great help to Laura’s slammed body. A week had passed since the growlers, the crows guarded the inn, allowing only Perry and Guto helping her in exchange for food to pass, and sometimes they forgot that LaF lived there and left the doctor lost, but allowed her to pass, everyone else with Kirsch left wandering in the woods, or the road back to the city.

But somehow Danny broke their spell, arriving at the pension. In fact, this girl is tough, admitted Carmilla, regretted only being away from the blonde for a week. The Snow Diana gave the journalist a harsh scolding. After that, was much easier to get an ax between the eyes. Such attention from the woodcutter show up two things: one she liked Laura in a way that the vampire did not approve, two that presence when she killed the fish, must have been Diana’s snooping around. The brunette had to stay away regarding the peace she didn’t have and denying what was beating in her heart without knowing it.

With the weather abnormally warmer, the vampire left the inn for a walk, paying attention to the crows guarding the surroundings.

“Calm down, I won’t try to escape, you don’t need to keep an eye on me,” She said, shaking one hand at shoulder level.

Climbing the rest of the way to the Karnstein estate, Carmilla took a walk through the rubble. There were still some fish bones, found a higher overturned beam, sat on it and faced the sight of nothing. There was no difference between the landscape and its interior, at least what it could control. She took a book out of her waist, a navy blue cover, with silver edges - Tales of Winter - opening on any page as usual.

(...) and winter fell to its knees, the golden spear pierced through the chest, and the blood of the beloved one on the ground (...) summer lay there (...).

Carmilla read the phrases randomly, without caring, because in her mind all the words made sense, having memorized each phrase, each word, a lump ahead in the story, read the chapter in which Winter faced the dragon king Slowro, the reptile ended up losing his head. They fought epic battles, her favorite character the Winter, it didn’t have much of his personality except for the bravery along with the sick violence and, his unrequited love for Summer, mentioned in all the books.

Snorting after reading more than half the book, the vampire lay with the pages open over her chest, breathing deeply asleep, in her dreams, where the division of the worlds did not separate her from home, riding in the red fields of the great battles over Winter side, or as a squire of the first of darkness.

A crow quacked perched on a steel cable between two pillars remains. It flapped its wings, waking the vampire in screams. The animal approaching with a roll of paper tied to its paw. She angered look at him so he would shut up, which only happened after it delivered the message.

“But it is today,” Said Carmilla unrolling the train ticket. “Romania?” The vampire ran out towards the inn, bumping into Danny at the bar and exchanging an angry look with her. The woodcutter took possession of the ax without looking away from the suspicion of having hurt Laura.

“Hey Carmilla,” LaF greeted bringing a tray of milk and cookies, discouraging the woodcutter’s ax. “We were going to see Laura, why don’t you come with us?” Danny shut the roar in her throat.

“It’s a great idea, but I’m in a kind of hurry now, maybe another time, now has anyone seen the mutt?”

“For what? Have fun kicking puppies?” Questioned Diana Snow.

“Lumberjacks too,” Carm replied in a good provocation.

“Hey stop it! Laura is almost ok, you won’t start a new riot for her to stress,” LaF rushed, because her patient was almost on the way. “Chello must be in bed with Laura, they got very attached.”

As soon as they got to the room, Danny closed the passage for Carmilla who didn’t care. Listening to the blonde’s heart and seeing her at a glance was enough. It would be better if they didn’t see each other for a while, but the blonde made a point of calling her into the room, disarming the woodcutter.

“Wow Carm looks like we haven’t seen each other in a month,” Laura said excitedly eating a cookie.

“What a drama, it was only a week,” She leaned side the fireplace.

“Ah! It was enough for me, ok,” The patient crossed her arms, disappointed with the lack of warmth of the other. Chello stretched her muzzle out of the blanket asking for what the owner was eating and she received a milk-soaked biscuit which made her tail wag. She barked at Carmilla, who returned a serious look with a slight nod.

The dog stirred, jumping off the bed and going to Carmilla, but grabbed by Danny.

“Come here, she doesn’t like you little one,” She explained to the fur ball, then she bites the redhead’s fingers.

“I think she doesn’t like you Diana,” Mock Carmilla picking up Chello from the floor.

“Ah! You guys have no way, getting hurt all the time, Danny come over, I have to disinfect the bite,” LaF said.

“No, it’s nothing,” Danny with her fingers dripping red.

“Danny, as much I love Chello, we do not vaccinate her,” Said Laura. There was no way for this, and Danny went with the biologist to the kitchen. Chello squirmed, escaping the vampire’s fingers, and left the room at baby barks. “She likes play... to bite...” That last sentence came out with the eyes of the two crossing.

Carmilla was forced to approach, sitting at the feet of the blonde who left the glass of milk on the side bed table - I’m too close - she thought, looking at the baseboard near the fireplace. Laura’s heartbeat was normal, no sign that she might have high blood pressure, or evidence of bad cholesterol, but she felt her heart speed up when their hands touch.  
She was right there, too close. There was only an inch between them. Somehow the journalist’s eyes doped the vampire.

Brown, she thought, seeing them up close.

“Aren’t your eyes red?”

Their hands intertwined like magnets, taking over their bodies.

“It’s normal not to be afraid of you?” Laura asked without breaking her gaze.

“But you’re not normal,” said Carmilla, forehead at forehead. The gasp coming from the blonde’s mouth reached the lips of the vampire who felt the delicious taste of carmine filling her memory, but this time, it wasn’t just blood she was thirsty, was more, way more.

The glances immersed in an unsettling atmosphere of consent opened up possibilities and filled the heads of both with the most diverse ideas, allowing themselves lost in the imagination added to the pulse of the chest.

“So cupcake,” Whispered groping the blonde’s waist, who hugged her.

“Can’t you say my name?” Asked, almost laying the brunette on her. If she knew the damage her existence was doing over the vampire, she wouldn’t even ask.

“What is it?”

“I wanted to do this since I saw you drinking at the bar. Whenever I see you, you look sad and it makes me sad. I can’t explain, it’s like I know you. I don’t know, I know you bite me, but, you also saved me, and you didn’t kill me until now, nor did you eat me,” Laura was out of breath, not sure of what she said in that hug.

“I didn’t kill, but I can kill,” Carmilla slipped her fingers on the journalist’s neck. “You know? I could kill you now,”

“Then kill,” Challenged. In the same second the vampire was static, both the challenge and her body proved to be hard as steel. “Come on, kill, can’t you?” She joked something about the brunette stirred her up to defy danger.

The brunette forced herself, but her body did not obey, her hand did not strangle, it did not hurt. She staggered away from the strange feelings, but Laura went along with her on the floor.

“What kind of vampire are you?” Laughed sitting on the brunette’s waist. “What’s up? Ah! Okay,” Carmilla stared at Laura without blinking, holding her face and saw her eyes change color, giving a light flash lightening the hazel brown. “Carm?”

“You…” The vampire shuddered, an old teaching about each one’s eyes. “Laura...”

Once again their foreheads glued together, facing each other, and this time Carmilla let the true red colors dominate her view. It was a calm she had once felt, a simple and welcoming warmth in her chest. They remained silent, with their bodies meeting in an embrace with their eyes closed.

A few leaves dangling from the flapping of wings lifted Carmilla from what seemed like a wonderful dream - crap of clan - lifting Laura off her lap and taking her to the bed. Both looking away, blushing.

“I take the pooch for a walk, I have something to solve in the city,” She said trying to distract her senses by running to the door.

“Carm, uh well,”

“Yes cupcake,” She replied with a wink like the red disappearing behind the black eyes, it was all she could pretend. “Later, I’ll tell you a story,”

“I summon you for that,” Said Laura, making the revolver gesture to the vampire. Carm absorbed that joyful expression and closed the bedroom door.

***

A few minutes after the journalist’s charming summons, the vampire and the shapeshifter were in town arranging the last preparations - dressing a dog.

“But already?! Like this?!” Snorted Chello wearing a pair of pants in an alley near the train station.

“It’s been a week,” Carmilla held the rest of her partner’s clothes.

“But today? Or did you just let me know now?” The girl falls on the garbage cans to put on the boots.

“It was today surprise, even for me, but unlike you I am always alert,”

“I know, unless you go without clothes with Laura,”

“What?!”

“Oh go! I’m not blind, I see how you look at each other ok, she even dreams of you,” Said the girl hiding her ears in a bowler hat. “This whole week, there wasn’t a night without her calling you, those dreams must interest,” Chello hid the laughter in the back of her hand.

“And did you pay attention?” Asked the annoyed vampire.

Three attempts to murder the shameless girl after:

“Did you have to be so angry?” Mumbled Chello rearranging her clothes, removing the plaster remnants of the shirt rubbed on a wall.

The girls waited inside the station, passersby and luggage slipping under the weight - try to imagine if there was ice - the drivers’ whistles, all in perfect sync, perfect for ordinary humans were soon in monotony, stuck to their own rules. In that chaos of noises and exhaled breaths, the screech of cold tracks with the friction of boiling locomotives.

For a second the vampire was free of Laura’s heartbeat in her ears, but her mind flooded with feelings of that hug, what could happen later in a locked room, the blonde’s calls in the dark, where only the hands could see, only gasps would ask, heat would describe, and kisses would answer.

“Vampire?” Chello waved her hand in front of Carmilla’s face. “Tell me how they are,”

“I don’t know,” Replied like someone who just got off the bus almost missing the point.

“Are you kidding?”

“Look like I’m kidding?”

“Well looked like you wanted, play with Laura,”

“Shut up!”

With the discussion on the verge of never ending, a Romanian train arrived at the station and, there was no need to explain the nature of the ticket, it was a one-way departure to Treffen with an estimated arrival date for today. Among the great cloud of smoke from the powerful engine turning off on the tracks, three women appeared with black cloaks and menacing eyes.

“Mircalla Karnstein,” Announced the youngest among the other two. The judge, the prosecutor and the executioner. The third nocturnal court had arrived to try Carmilla.


	13. The Clan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one more night, here's another one, for you Creampuffs.

Carmilla and Chello were motionless because of the Romanian triad. Was like use a sledgehammer to kill a mockingbird, just why the fuck they would be here? In an end of the world called Treffen, meeting a stray vampire smelling milk. It must have been the wrong train, maybe they had made a mistake on the line to Madrid and ended up at the foot of the Alps by a mistake by the myopic train driver.

“Stay,” Carmilla whispered between her teeth, holding the dog’s neck behind on the run. They looked at the three of them approaching like the ghost of the past Christmases. After a disgusting introduction, they went on to Punkt - a place that would be open, day and night.

Sitting at a round table in the darkest corner of the joint, Carmilla took a deep breath with Chello sitting to her left, opposite them: the prosecutor Norma Arciel Xezsrevy, a redhead with her hair sticking out and her bangs tucked to the side, on her right, the teenage vampire and judge Mina Halker, a seemingly jovial girl of only seventeen, her hair was straight down and curled at the ends, contained by a silver pin with pink buttons.

“Order anything you want ladies,” Said the young woman with white skin and empty eyes, that bothered Carmilla, because she couldn’t read those dark eyes framed in the demon's image. “All on us today,” She called to a woman to serve them. Without hesitating, Chello ordered everything on the menu of three items, bread, meat and alcohol.

“I must ask your excellencies the reason for your coming, I did not expect more than a footman,” Carmilla pointed out, while Chello devoured the two dishes of roasted ducks and chickens.

“Sit with us Garu,” Said Norma to the blonde with spiky hair and ponytail on the counter turning a mug of dark beer. “Come, you can sit next to me,” Smiled hitting the seat, but the executioner with her sword clinking around her waist just ignored.

“Leave it, you know that she likes to make herself difficult, my angry Kittie,” Smiled Mina, pouting Garu, who lifted her mug. That act nauseated Carmilla staring at the teenage vampire. “Dear Mircalla, have you some dirt inside your pants to make you so angry? Killing me with this look... or it’s having me?” Smile Vlad III’s project.

“No excellency, I am just perplexed with such a glimpse of attention,” She replied with a firm voice, almost like shouting a big: IF YOU CAME TO KILL ME, SO KILL!!!

“What a hush Kittie, what a mouth to talk to me,” It was almost impossible to keep calm. Everything that came out of Mina’s lips dripped with poison. “Why so aggressive cutie? Are you afraid of something? Did you do something I should know? Were you naughty?”

Chello choked on a chicken leg at the end of the sentence, laid her eyes at the ally. A drop of sweat ran down Carmilla’s temple with a pulsing vein in rage. It wasn’t a ragged clan; they were not even Austrian or Russian governors. It was the Valaquian lords of the third court, Mina Halker, one of the ruthless and most merciless vampires to assume the judge’s mantle. Norma Arciel Xezsrevy is a relentless prosecutor, often compared to Mount Everest in terms of the incursion arguments known as Evergot; finally, the frightening, Garu Syvalion, the pawn Fallvalion, a little joke on her name thrown in the mud for many years, but without diminishing her ability, Fallvalion was a word, one order, it was enough the judge’s sentence and, heads rolled by the executioner’s hands.

“A notice of activities outside of discretion came to us, it was drawing a lot of human attention, we send crows to find out, but something attacked them,” Norma clarified waiting for an answer from the clear defendant in front of them.

“The Morgan clan left these lands many years ago to venture at the new world. Do not tell me you intend to return, intend to stoke old embers?” Mina said, delighting in the sight in the eyes of Lilita Morgan’s prodigal daughter.

“I no longer belong to the Morgan clan and, if I may, I would be very pleased to rip Lilita’s heart out with my own hands,” She countered the firmly causing a laugh in the young Mina. “I have no connection with that fucker anymore, unless to kill her,”

“I will decide that Mircalla, but I would like to have Morgan’s heart in my hands beating, just to crush it myself,” Smiled the dark and young Romanian lady. “But for now, I would like to know why you are here,”

“I was born here, wanted sneak around and smell the childhood air,”

“Please Mircalla, what is that nostalgia? You? The lustful and insatiable virgin banger Mircalla. Wait a minute,” The young lady still silent in malicious thoughts. “Yes, your punishment for betraying mom, how wonderful. Who is she?”

Carmilla swallowed the words for the accurate declaration. In front of a dangerous vampire than Lilita. To make things worse, the girl smiled wickedly instead of being offended by the renegade’s frown.

“Ladies, please,” Norma asked. “We are here for the attacks, whatever you can clarify will be very welcome,” She cut the air in the middle of the table with both hands directed to them.

“What have to clarify? She is here to cry over her dead girlfriend and, in one of those bloody nights, she found something to distract her fangs,” Halker laughed. “What’s her name? I imagine she must be beautiful. They never doubted her nose for virgin girls,”

“Those chickens were attacking my property, that’s why I attacked them,” Carmilla held her anger. “It was an obvious defense,”

“They also have to eat honey, you have been drinking all around, what’s the problem of sharing a little? Unless, unfortunately, they had spotted your new lover,” Big bad luck, because the lady of darkness noticed all the defendant’s micro expressions. “I see, you got another one,” She smiled and, Carmilla’s fury roared inside her without being able to show up.

Carmilla stood up with red eyes, ready to defend herself. A devastating presence came after her with spiky hair grabbing her arm.

“Easy Garu, everything is fine,” Said the redhead with eyes flashing with the slight agitation.

“It’s everything ok ma’am,” Chello stared at Garu with a knife pointed at the executioner’s waist.

“I prove to you I am innocent,” Declared Carmilla leaning on the table.

***

Over twenty kilometers up the mountains were Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby - climbing in the middle of more than a meter of snow - Mina walked calmly on the target floor, as if her body weighed less than a feather, while all the others walked behind Carmilla to dig the path with a shovel, Chello helped widen the passage, Garu stomped hard to pave a safe passage for Norma, who occasionally stumbled on the blonde’s back.

“Have we arrived yet?” Mina asked like an impatient child in the back seat of a car.

“Over there,” Pointed the brunette with the shovel, at the same time that the redhead at the end of the line screamed, falling into Garu’s arms.

“It’s ok, I got you,” Said Garu in a languid tone.

“Thank you,” The prosecutor cowered with the executioner’s bear hug.

“Hey you two!” Mina scolded, while Carmilla exhumed the frosted ham of the other day.

“That’s what caught the attention of humans,” The defendant pointed to the person responsible for the bloodbath.

It was Norma jumping in the pit and checking the preserved corpse, examining the crushed head, picking up some remaining teeth to get a better look, the hairs on her hands as thick as tundra grass.

“It looks like we have a culprit,” Reported the prosecutor as an expert and defense lawyer.

“But one wouldn’t have done it all,” said Garu, watching Norma’s frown and Mina’s smile with Carmilla’s foam.

“I’ll show you the rest then, but maybe they’re less showy,”

“Okay, I’ll examine it myself,” Sayed Evergot leaving the pit and returning to the trail followed by Chello and Garu.

Carmilla filled the shovel with snow ready to bury the animal for good, however the judge warned the accused of her effort.

“No need to bother Mircalla,” Mina said when Carmilla threw the first snow in the hole. “I’m getting impatient,” She stretched her palm towards the popsicle in the pit, her eyes flashed red and the growler turned to dust, then pointed her hand at the accused. “It could end here, everything settled,” Smile. “But I’ll wait until I can taste revenge on you and your mother,”

“She is not my mother,” Imposed with the same sparkle in her eyes and all the repulsion of Lilita’s name.

***

They continued downhill close to the Getroffen road, Mina complained about her aching feet. Walking was not a pleasant activity for her, not when she could ask to be carried.

“Garu, please,” The judge grabbed Fallvalion from behind. “Please, I can’t walk anymore,”

The executioner took the lazy girl in her arms and rolled eyes. Norma avoided the maiden scene by grabbing Garu’s neck. A little further back, Chello stopped sniffing a familiar smell.

“What’s it?” Carmilla asked the girl in the bowler hat.

“Ah no, fuck,” Replied Chello, disbelieving the disaster, aiming over the prosecutor’s shoulder ahead.

“Carm!” Laura shouted, jumping in Carmilla’s arms. “I got better, let’s talk later, don’t forget. And you want cookies? I could make some, what do you think?” Chatty and happier than usual with newly discovered Austrian vampirism.

This is the reason for the dog’s distress, Laura took a walk in the sun - a way to say farewell to a week stuck in bed - for the first time she saw Chello without the fur, and she looked at the sky pretending want nothing. Right behind were Danny and LaF catching up with the energetic journalist. The other three vampires measured the meat group. Norma greeted them. The woodcutter was uncomfortable, not only because of Carmilla, but Garu too. LaF tried to imagine what mysteries in black cloaks accompanied Laura’s savior. Mina no longer imagined anything, because everything was right in front of her eyes. The judge jumps off Syvalion’s arms, and approach to meet the enthusiastic blonde.

“But who is this young lady, using the sun as her own hair?” In the same second Carmilla and Chello strained the muscles, ready to bleed some arteries. Fallvalion stood between them, Mina just looked at them sideways smiling, took a step towards Laura holding her face in both hands. “What a cutie you are,”

“Laura,” Danny called, disgusted by the proximity.

“Laura Hollster,” Cleared her surname. “Thank you,” She didn’t know how to deal with such words. It was strange, but Carmilla’s presence calmed her, which couldn’t be said of Carmilla herself.

“Young lady, let me see your eyes right,” Mina asked. A request that made a roar pinch Carm’s throat. “I see a lot of problems in your life, and an enormous shadow in your heart,” Smiled _Raven_ from Transylvania, and smiled further when she found two holes in the journalist’s neck.

“I think it’s enough for today, Laura,” Danny called, dragging the short blonde.

As Carmilla regretted all. But at that point, there’s no turning back, and maybe she wouldn’t be able to show up that night.

“Where’s Chello?” Asked the woodcutter.

“Sleeping in my room,” Said Carm.

“IS?” Asked the owner of the dog.

“Yeah,” Carmilla confirmed, pulling Laura in a last hug, leaving Danny to huff.

“I’ll wait for you to talk,” Laura closed her eyes, hiding her face in the brunette, feeling her heat, memorizing her smell.

“I’ll be there,” The words tasted bitter under the eyes of the triad, but the vampire clutched the blonde in the baggy blue sweater printed with a beige dog with dark ears.

***

The vampires took the path showed by the accused among the trees, almost two kilometers by roots and treacherous icy traps. The bended tree on which someone had kicked the sergeant marked the right spot. Taking advantage of the anger she felt, Carmilla hugged a large tree of eight meters. With a little effort she raised it revealing the grave of the deserters, huddled, punched, pure carnage because of the weather against the winter.

Norma jumped close to them, threw the cloak back, and realized what she already knew - undoubtedly some growlers - went back to Mina and whispered something, the way she gestured was about the complete innocence of the renegade vampire, the judge left her executioner’s arms to better have with the prosecutor. Garu jumped on a twisted root, fingering the curious cut in the trunk where the sergeant was torn apart. Chello kept her guard, distressed as her clan partner, both knew that the worst could happen, the spark that would set fire to everything was hovering, waiting for the cue to enter the scene and incinerate everyone.

“Mircalla,” Called Mina. “How was the night? When you bite her, did she moan or something? Don’t be offended. I’m just curious,”

“Are you going to kill me or not? I did the job, I exterminated those useless ones for you,” Expos facing Mina’s horrifying look.

“Answer me first, I asked first,” It looked like a child trying to win an argument between adults. “Just tell me if she liked it, I’m curious now, also with your ex, she liked it, or screamed while you drained her to death?”

“Please, just calm down ladies,” Asked the prosecutor while Garu guarded the judge.

“Well, well, Mircalla, we will not kill you, you’re innocent of the bloodbath crime here, but I can’t say the same about your recklessness with the residents of Miss Perry’s inn,” Said the girl. Norma spoke out against the leader’s intentions.

“Your Honor, I am responsible for medical expertise and I say that she is innocent,” he argued.

“Yes, I have already given my opinion on this, innocent of the attacks around the mountain, but I must remind you I am the leader of the council that falls within the jurisdiction of the district Wallachia, in which for circumstances I’m also responsible for this territory and, as far as I am responsible, I see risk in the attitudes of this young woman,” She looked at Carmilla. “The relationship she has with Laura Eileen Hollis, or Laura Hollster because of the war, puts night secrecy at risk,”

Carmilla’s veins were bulging with hate. Chello tossed the hat away in the shape of a Pit Bull, foaming and snarling at the “seventeen” year old vampire.

“Please, ladies,” Norma asked once again between them.

“She does not pose any risk Mina Harker!” Roared with the barking of the enormous dog by her side.

“It’s already decided,” Mina said.

Carmilla advanced with Chello, but both rolled in the snow, pushed by Garu. The dog hit a tree, yelping as it rose, but the judge stepped on its paw, returning the furry to the ground.

“Chello!” Carmilla cried as the dog screeched as Mina brutally dragged her.

“She stays here,” Ordered when breaking a vertebra of the grown puppy. “I’m sorry Mircalla, but I will not risk our anonymity for a youth romance. Kill her if she tries to follow us. This is my sentence,” Said the leader, turning back to the distressed vampire. In the blink of an eye the judge, the prosecutor and the vitaminized puppy were gone, leaving Garu and Carmilla behind.

Fallvalion drew her sword from with the tip of the blade she drew a line on the floor.

“You shall not pass,” She said in a dark cold voice.

Carmilla clenched her teeth; blood boiling and time running out. She couldn’t let Laura suffer at the hands of that sadist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a hell of a bad time for a walk Laura. Hey Soldiers what's going to happen? Not only to Laura, but Carm seems completely stuck in her way, against the Fallvalion.


	14. Red sunset

Garu Syvalion the personal guard of Mina Halker, servant of the Wallachia command, the Fallvalion pawn and the only thing between the renegade vampire Carmilla and the aspiring journalist Laura.

The streak on the ground guarded by what Carm called:

“Get out of my way, motherfucker!” Roared, rising from another bended tree.

“Insult as many relatives you want, they are not my family at all, not anymore,” Garu was irritatingly calm, always aiming at nothing, drawing on thin snow, barely staring at her opponent.

“I’m warning you, get out of my way!” Carmilla advanced like an American football striker, in the same violence she was beaten by a blow that threw her on the top of a tree, from there she spotted a way for Laura, but the trunk gave way to a single cut by Fallvalion.

She quickly jumped to the ground, falling to her feet with the immense trunk lifting a thin white layer behind her. Her hair danced to the impact of the tree, Carmilla’s eyes changed from dark brown to boiling red, closing her fists with her aura, using hatred in the right parts, her clothes swaying with the cold air hovering in that arena.

“Death Kiss,” She snarled with her hand extended with the gauntlet. In a second, the blade deposited the handle between her fingers.

“Nice sword,” Garu acknowledged, admired of the work of the rival weapon. “Vespertine,” Presented with the pale blade in the middle of her face. “Ladies first,” She bowed.

“Go to HELL WITH LADIES!!!” Carmilla go forward in a horizontal section on her left, Fallvalion braked blade wire by wire, being pushed upright by the novice swordsman, stopping just before the dashed line with her heels raised.

“Well, you have an excellent position, but you did not develop it, with that level and the amount of emotion that is letting guide your blows,” Garu deflected the tip of Death Kiss to the ground, hitting a strong elbow in the face of the angry vampire who, tried to counterattack, but she got hit by a big kneeling in the ribs. “Your chances of defeating me are null,”

The brunette spat blood on her knees, her tongue warned her of two loose teeth, her view confirmed a third molar outside her mouth. Her chest seemed hit by a locomotive, pain added to anger, the Death Kiss carrier was boiling over blood from Mina Halker’s guard.

“You shall not pass,” Reaffirmed Garu, disarming the combat pose and finally looking into the eyes of the jumping canine opponent. “I won’t allow you,” Showed her fangs and eyes shining like jewels.

The brunette tried to run, win a race to Laura, but she was pulled back by the heel and thrown in the opposite direction. Garu was fast - no wonder Mina didn’t need more guards, Fallvalion was enough - watching the impossibility of an escape, Carmilla adopted the combat posture, arching her knees, her right leg forward, both hands on the corporal, fully focus on the enemy and how to tear it apart.

A clash among the trees, each movement discharged a breath of air, logs were marked by their passage, the executioner always on the defensive being pushed to the lowest part of the mountain. Among the attacks strongly defended by the skilled blonde, Vespertine pierced the renegade.

Carmilla pressed the hilt of the sword to devour her, drying the throat, burning her hatred inside, channeling it in the defended attacks and, retaliated by Fallvalion - time was running out - the clash was dragging more and more, with red spots across the white, if the brunette was thinking of go forward, was being fooled by her sense of direction. As Garu took her away from the line, away from Laura, but run was impossible.

The only alternative was to defeat Fallvalion. 

Taking advantage of the vampire’s dispersion immersed in hatred, the executioner squeezed the Vespertine cable between the enemy’s shoulder and neck, injuring Carmilla’s collarbone by retreating with her left arm hanging down. So she realized the ground under her boots, pure ice - Lake Fehér - thinner and dangerous, the relief of winter last week.

“That’s enough Carmilla, just accept it, we don’t have to prolong it,” The guardian said despondently, while her opponent struggled to stand on the ice surface with her collarbone and several other broken bones.

“Get out of my way!” She weakened with her ribs dancing loose, using the sword as a  
crutch. “I want, I want her,” Gasped at the sound of the ice cracking morbidly.

“Really? Are you so in love that you would kill your own species for a human girl?” Garu sheathed the blade, as the opponent no longer had a fighting position. It was what Carmilla expected, in one last desperate attack and, carelessness of the guardian. Death Kiss went through the cover of the dry blonde. “Yes, you are in love,” Concluded the executioner outside her cloak of cold beside the renegade.

The Vespertine cable snapped Carmilla’s jaw, throwing her into the sky, and in that sky was Fallvalion in a spin with the elbow that hit the brunette’s neck, making her cross thru thirty centimeters of ice into the water. She was no longer thinking, her skull had crashed beneath the ice, the freezing water was seeping through all the wounds, it diluted the remaining blood in her cold-dominated body, her fingers loosened Death Kiss in the underwater pitch and everything got dark.

***

“Let me go with you!” Carmilla pleaded the woman with long blood-colored hair. “Let me go with you! Why can’t I go to the world I’m from?!”

“Because you were born at this one! Stupid vampire!” That harsh voice roared. “You were born here, my daughter belongs to this world.”

A smoky vampire dream, a hazy, blackened memory of frustration. The image was changing, entering a whirlpool of flames and bombs, missiles and English planes, a coffin of blood for a traitor.

Too many poor memories.

“Mother?” Carmilla called, the voice echoed in an endless gray stone room, her hands trapped being sucked by the blood of her victims, the walls of the coffin rise around her body, the air was missing, her throat was pulled back by a red thread and the screams lacerated her vocal cords.

“Carm?” Laura’s voice hung over the agony.

The renegade vampire opened her eyes and there was the blonde calling her, but beside her was Mina.

“Lauraaa!!!” Roared the renegade watching the judge open her mouth on the blonde’s neck, but she preferred to hand over all the blood from her body, if only that would save the journalist who left this world in the judge’s fangs. The image changed once again, and this time Ell took the place of Laura, and Lilita Morgan herself replaced Mina’s teeth.

“Look, child,” Lilita stopped draining the innocent young girl, holding her face towards Carmilla, howling with hatred. “It is this monster that deceived you. It is this monster that killed you,” Ell’s chest exploded with the powerful lady’s arm of the shadows pierced it.

“Ell!!!” Shouted Carmilla when she saw the heart of her lover still beating with panic in the hands of her false mother.

“Goodbye, my child,” the cruel woman said just before a snap of her fingers smashed the traitor’s windpipe inside the coffin without being able to escape from the grave.

***

Pieces of ice hit each other, floating on the calm destroyed surface. Carmilla woke up spitting water inside Garu’s mouth.

“Calm down,” Asked Fallvalion holding her. “I said wait,” But the renegade didn’t want to know anything. Then she felt a pain thunder below her ribs, Garu held a blade buried in the young vampire. “You gave me no other choice, you will keep it until you calm down,” Snorted sitting next to Carmilla who moaned because of the damn dagger. “Calm down. It will only hurt more. Do not fight to stay awake, soon you will pass out. It is done,” She said last, with the end of the sentence.

It was just before noon when all this madness started and the sun was setting red; it was the end, and Carmilla knew that.

“Laura” Called in her mind before everything become black.


	15. A pain in the ass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!  
> Hey Soldiers, one more chapter.

The weight of the blankets was enough for Carm ribs, torn apart like a cream cracker. But not only her bones seem in pain. Even the warmth of the fireplace against her skin look like she was burning all over. The slightest sigh moved the broken ribs. Breathing in the metallic scent of her own blood, her hair stuck in sweat near the mouth, the blurry vision turning as she lifted her body.

“Lie down,” Said a voice accompanied by a red blot holding the renegade’s shoulders over the bed.

She forced her eyes to see, but the blow of the fight kept her almost blind, hearing a little more of her voice, realized that it was Norma in the room. The brunette’s senses were ten times more acute for pain. It was almost impossible to blink without all the muscles protesting.

“La-Laura,” The vampire coughed on the first syllable, the entire throat felt burnt, the torso sizzled, burning under four pounds of bandages.

“Forget about it. It was done, and try not to talk. You swallowed a lot of freezing water,” Norma said while sitting on the edge of the bed. She held her hand over the bandage below her ribs. “I hate when she uses this, hurts a lot,”

The renegade vampire remembered the instant when the executioner pricked her blade. Carmilla sought the stubborn wound, appearing to be full of sand - what a pain.

“I took what I coud, the rest will have to dilute in your blood. Coud take a few weeks,” Norma said, letting Carm to understand the state of her finished body. “I always say not to use that damn bronze dagger, but I was the one who gave it to her. What a stupid idea,” The prosecutor laughed with her thoughts. “Well, you can meet a lot of people Mircalla, after all,”

After all.

If that were of any use, immortality to live forever condemned in this world - and it was not even what she wanted - supported the distorted view of the wooden ceiling next to the view of the canopy wrapped with greenish curtains because of her condition everything was a heap of blots.

“Laura,” Carmilla shuddered at Norma’s gaze, which impregnated the renegade with the worst of her thoughts.

“It doesn’t matter now, the sentence given and carried out, the judge of the third court does not change her mind and does not waste time in the execution of sentences,” Commented the prosecutor and, known for a long time before the judge be called excellency. “We went as soon as we could, but it was Mina who took care of your girlfriend,”

After the speech, the renegade can only think about the second the Romanian committee entered the inn. One by one falling, murdered by the third court. They must have killed Perry in the kitchen, on the table with a kitchen knife in the chest. LaF with the skull smashed into the wall and thrown through a window. Danny? This one must have been hard, but it would have been her own ax. They threw Guto into the frozen lake, must be, or dropped on the train line. Now Laura, just thinking about Carmilla’s stomach turned over, even with nothing to turn over.

She remembered the nightmare, imagined the blonde pointing a wooden spoon and a hanger at the judge, but the comic scene was not enough against the bitter end reported. Mina should have drained the blonde while ripping out her heart. Her heart so tender and warm, in that icy hand.

“I’m leaving to meet the court, I don’t have to say to stay here. I’ll be back later, would you like something?” Norma asked standing on the threshold, without an answer she knew would not come, the prosecutor pulled the handle, leaving the renegade alone in the room.

Something?

Yes;

Someone perhaps;

The one to soften the pain;

Carmilla was looking back at the ceiling after the door closed. She didn’t understand herself. So many lives passed through her, through her eyes, through her hands, through her teeth, and why the hell this life, a life she knows little, did displaced her? She thought of the touch, the embrace, the warmth. That life had reached the beat of her chest.

How?

Since, many years ago when Ell had made her heart beat indifferently to vampirism. It would be madness to compare them. They were different in many, and so similar in one thing at Carm’s heart.

“Did she was the…” She asked to the ceiling, vaguely remembering her mother’s speech:

“…Someone will come to you, the one that will make both, die and live, live next to her. And we live a lot, blood of mine, so maybe it will take a while to find her again. Only when one go, the other come up. And when it happens, remember, it is, what it is…” 

Remembered one of the few times that her mother didn’t yell at her. The pain slowly gone, and everything darkened.

Treffen looked like the city of eternal sleep at night, hardly anyone on the streets, perhaps in front of Punkt, or the station and the trains at dawn, but everything else, were just shadows passing over the snow, cold and empty.

***

At least three or four days went by, the vampire recovering, it was incredible, considering that she faced Garu Syvalion herself, but still had to stay in bed - damn bronze sandstone knife - if it weren’t for the sand in her blood, she would have taken a few sips from a bear and would have been on her feet again, trying to get to her promised land, but she was forced to lie down a few more days.

Every day Norma visited her, one day Garu came to deliver the gray backpack with all her belongings. The discussions between the executioner and the prosecutor clarified their involvement in something more than legal.

And for Carm, each night was a dream, a vision, a punch in the stomach, past and present that no longer exists.

She woke up in a cold sweat with the humming sound of the plane, her first contact with the 20th century:

...not so many years ago, Nazis would have accidentally dug up a sarcophagus in an explosion. The entire exterior of the coffin was intact, covered with carvings and seals, runes and inscriptions of ancient magic, very powerful. They quickly loaded him on a plane to Auschwitz.

Something didn’t seem quite right; one mooring rope had burst, the Nazi soldiers were startled by contents overflowing from the open cracks in the lid, soaking the floor in red. They crowded around the sarcophagus, held upright by steel and leather ties. The captain babbled something, a corporal - terrified - went to check the cargo. Poor Dumm was so scared that he slipped in the blood, getting all smeared.

“Habe hier etwas Kapitän” (There’s a body here, captain) Shouted him. 

“Es ist ein Sarg, natürlich hat er dort einen Körper, idiot” (It’s a coffin, of course it has a body in there, dumbass).

“Kapitän...” Varnens said before the coffin lid popped out and smashed it against the wall. The plane shake, the funnel box tipped back. 

The pilot was shouting over the loudspeakers, something about a black cloud over them.

A cry of agony came from the cockpit, sounds of gunshots, the soldiers looked at the corridor with their rifles affixed. Hork was trying to remove the trap pressed between the discharge door and the lid of the sarcophagus. A terrified Dumm used the coffin as a support for the weapon, the others leaned against the walls, at the entrance to the cabin.

“Halten!” (Firm!) The captain said to the men as they approached the door they could heard gunshots on the other side. When everything fell silent.

“ELL!!!” A husky, aggressive voice roared in the air. The shots came from behind them, when the soldiers and the captain turned and saw Dumm with his guts out with a crimson corpse on him.

“Dumm!” Hork shouted, firing at the monster.

“ELL!!!” The corpse screamed from his throat full of blood and spite. Grudge of the deepest hate inside Carmilla’s heart, just exhumed by a bunch of stupid Nazi. “ELL!!!” It was all she roared.

Shots flew in all directions, desperate, terrified. The body of the coffin, the features hardened and drawn by time, skin and bones with more strength than a rhino, the hair to the waist and the eyes without irises or pupils, only red.

The plane plummeted forward in free fall. The vampire was still searching for Ell with her throat, almost breaking with her collar. That’s when the shadow took all over that plane.

Carmilla woke up from the memory on the sixth day. What a horrible nightmare, the day she woke up in that century. She closed her eyes again, certain that nothing would be worse than the dream she had.

***

Crackling fire, breathlessness, and the sound of the vampire’s kisses with the journalist sitting beside her - it wasn’t enough - Carmilla let her hands roam over the blonde’s torso, while her lips clung to the other’s lips. Laura kept one hand in her black hair, while the other squeezed the vampire’s waist to sigh with each assault under the blouse.

The blonde laid Carmilla on the bed with no protest, Laura kept her eyes immersed in the other’s red eyes, smiling she lifted her blouse and let her hands feel the warm vampire skin. 

“Carm,” Laura called, mounting her and folding hands. 

“Laura” Answered.

The blonde lay on the vampire to take advantage of the proximity of her victim’s neck; victim?

If it was possible to have a worse dream than the plane? Of course, Carmilla had just woken up from it. Something watered her eyes, something that monsters don’t have, something she shouldn’t feel, but they were running down her face.

“Enough!” She screamed, falling off the bed, put on the boots and crawled into the coats, took Garu’s cloak and left that cursed bedroom, following leaning on the corridor walls, going to the exit. The metal staircase on the side of the Punkt. She grabbed the handrail and entered the bar drinking everything she could handle, which was definitely not a good idea. Her body still lying in the effect of bronze sandstone, a pain in the ass to any kind of drink or food.

“Hey cutie,” Kirsch approached laughing, surrounding Carmilla with his arm on the counter. “How about we take a walk?” He said a lot more nonsense, while the vampire drink cup after cup without paying the minimum attention to the pumped woodcutter. “What do you say, huh?” 

“More,” Told her.

“More?” it surprised him, as he would have commented on his skills without clothes. Well, she said more, but it was for another dose of gin. Kirsch made a point by filling her glass. “Hey cutie, take it easy,” He laugh when the vampire pulled the bottle and turned it over her lips. “You can leave that on it on me,” He winked at the bartender.

The vampire squeezed the neck of the bottle, dried her eyes watering, before she could call the small drops of crystal tears. Her stomach grunted, twisting her intestines with the drone of the plane in her mind and the sensation of Laura’s touch. Everything contracting at once.

“Come on beauty,” Kirsch said raising his log arms and, Carmilla sulkily looked at the strong boy, ready to drop her hand on him, but her stomach did a somersault pushing all the drink out on the woodcutter’s pants. 

Carmilla faltered, falling into Norma’s arms to hold her close to Kirsch.

“It’s okay big boy. Why don’t you turn around, go outside and forget what happened?” Said the prosecutor in a gentle tone.

“But I’m going to make out with...” Evergot looked straight into his eyes, and in silent the boy stood straight with his shoulders back looking at the wall. “…I think I’m going outside...”

“And you’re going to make a nice snowman, using that bottle as the nose...” She handed Carmilla’s bottle over.

“…and I think I’m going to make a nice beautiful snowman, and I’m going to use this bottle to make a big nose...” He held the doll’s nose between both hands and walked out of the bar.

“Come Mircalla, let’s go to the bedroom, you shouldn’t have left,” Norma put the brunette’s arm around her neck and carried her out, going to the staircase in the alley where Kirsch was gathering snow for the snowman without dropping the bottle.

Carmilla did not bother to let the tears wet her face, prevented even from getting drunk, carried by a vampire who might as well disappear forever.

“Kirsch,” Called a calm voice at dawn. Carmilla looked over her shoulder at the top of the stairs. “Kirsch, what are you doing?” Laura asked, stumbling and fabric bags in her hands.

“I’m making a nice beautiful snowman,” He explained.

“Have you been drinking? What is that sour smell?” Laura’s attention went to the brunette rolling down the stairs. “Wow, are you okay?” 

“Laura,” Carmilla called, looking into the blonde’s bright eyes.

“Yes, it’s me, and, who are you?”


	16. The end of the trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!  
> Hey Creampuffs, here another chapter, Carm face the trial, and now what she will do?

Through the bedroom window, the sun lighted like a veil on the fuchsia wood of the patterned wall, designed like on a diagonally fallen trunk of the Punkt rooms. Norma drew the curtains, darkening the room of the renegade tied to the bed. The headboard pushed the back, a lilac chain pulled the canopy below the arms through Carmilla’s clothes, arms and legs tightly tied by the same chain.

“I’m sorry for the chain, but we must talk and preferably with you calm Mircalla, ”Said Norma siting a chair right way at the door. “First, allow me to apologize for the way you found out, we would have this conversation after I come back. But you are stronger than you look, just like that short girl.”

Carmilla tugged on her arms, trying to free herself, but her strength, already out of step with the bronze, was lesser with the chain clinging to her skin.

“Save yourself the effort.”

“Gold scarab chain?” Asked weakly.

“You know things, young girl.”

“I had to clean Lilita’s mess sometimes,” She smiled, but her body and heart didn’t do the same. It aimed the other two ends of the canopy, one on the chest and the other on the shoulder.

“So, once you understand, let’s talk Mircalla,” From there, the brunette had no choice but to listen to the will that would follow the end of the punishment disguised as a verdict. “You should know that the judge of the third court is very direct in the sentences,” Carm closed her eyes, trying to find those heartbeats, but she was a little deaf from the blood senses with her skull broken. “Mircalla?”

“She still alive, why? Weren’t you going to kill her?” Asked facing the prosecutor’s eyes.

“We never said we would kill her, even though that desire was constant on the judge’s mind. Confused? It’s not a secret that Judge Mina Halker is an excellent telepath. She could easily end up more than half of Wallachia’s council in an aneurysm, or make them wear a ballet skirt and go out dancing like swans. Understand Mircalla, what use have humans to us? Those fragile beings. For us, only our own matter, humans can do nothing, scream out, vampires, werewolves, by the gods an elf of darkness,” She gestured imitating human dread. “After so many years, the real threat walk in the night by our own side.”

“Enough with this small talk, will you kill me or take me to Romania? Torture? Bury? Spill it out!” The brunette’s eyes filled with red and her teeth protruded her lips, and the canopy pressed against her shoulder.

“The sentence was oblivion, nobody that you have met in that inn will remember you Mircalla, not even Laura Eileen Hollis, it is in your interest then to know that, it was Mina herself to erase her memories,” Carmilla seemed skeptical of that, both of her feelings and her own forgetfulness, but she had an idea that could be the salvation of a doubt.

“You know how to bend minds too, don’t you?”

“I don’t usually brag, Mina is better than me.” Norma crossed her legs.

“Erase mine, I don’t want to remember her anymore.”

Evergot laughed at the request.

“Mircalla, among everyone you are the one who must remember her, you must remember not to make the same mistake,” The prosecutor looked at the renegate, letting her eyes follow the curves of the dressings.

“For Mina, one hundred human lives can be taken for a night life, the opposite cannot happen either one to one. The problem for her is the nocturnal ones who decide that a human can be worth over one of ours. Our destruction cannot come from human hands, but from our own, a war between the same blood. What do you think the Greek age was? Ragnarok, or even the end of the Persian empire, we must not go to war, otherwise we would be like men, just taking the lives of our fellow,” Evergot took a breath after the immense idealistic explanation.

“Don’t make me laugh with that hollow altruism of the court, you know we are always at war with each other, the difference is that we live longer than men, nothing more, otherwise we are even worse.”

The prosecutor smiled slightly at the corner of her mouth, with the disillusioned and disowned young woman Mircalla Karnstein.

“Laura is alive, as well all the residents of the inn, but for now, at least until we leave, you must stay away from her, for Laura’s sake. Believe me, you don’t have to be a clairvoyant to know that Mina is thirsty to attack you mother and everything else that refers to her.”

“She is not my mother!” Roamed Carmilla with thirsty fangs.

“Watch your thirst, not that you be able to drink something with so much bronze in your veins, but this chain is not tolerant of screams,” Norma said with the chain pressing the tip of the canopy on the renegade’s chest. “Listen, centuries ago the third court judged a case very similar to yours, a young vampire in love with a human girl. It was a scandal at the time, not the taste, but the balance of values. For that vampire the human was worth more than her blood of the night. The same streak imposed on you was proposed to her. It all culminated in the death of five vampires and the severely wounded executioner, in which Mina had no choice but to exterminate the entire human family and execute the vampire who had challenged her own species. Can you see what happened here Mircalla?”

“If I had crossed that line.”

“Yes, she would be buried with everyone else under the burnt debris of the inn. It was because of this case centuries ago that, Mina thought a little more about the two of you, instead of killing everyone. By this, you must understand the judge. The vampire from centuries ago had crossed the line and, had to watch everyone being killed before his eyes, one by one, until Anna’s turn, yes that was the name of the young woman to be torn apart. The same could have happened to you two.”

The vampire on the bed disarmed, letting her muscles sink into oblivion. The supposed victory had a nasty taste, Laura alive had been a gain, but without remembering her and what they felt; a loss. The chains loosened, as did the stakes aimed at her heart. Norma called the chain freeing Carmilla and replacing the canopy in its place aimed at the ceiling.

“I can’t say for sure when we going to leave, because Mina and Garu are hunting the centurion in that region.”

“Hunting?” The brunette hid her disgust and total lack of faith in the Wallachian principles.

“Yes, he would be punished for total incompetence and neglect leaving those growlers out there, but we found out that he had business with the pack, now the hunting season has started, Mina will not come back till caught him, do you believe the bastard ran away when he heard we were here?”

“And shouldn’t you be with them?” Questioned to the redhead.

“No, in this case he is already guilty, I’m only there when I think the defendant does not deserve the accusation or the penalty. Now please, silence Mircalla,” She asked with her finger to the lips.

Sounds of steps, sounds of nervousness, sounds of Laura’s heart behind the door.

Norma’s chain gagged Carmilla at the same time the journalist was knocking on the door.

“What are you doing? You don’t even know her, although she is so beautiful,” Heard from the corridor.

The prosecutor couldn’t hide her smile at the situation, the journalist without the least bit of modesty was already after the vampire she thought she didn’t know, she certainly wouldn’t be in the judge’s predictions - and that would make Mina foam with rage - Carmilla shot the devil’s advocate holding the laughs.

“Is she not in here? Ah! My god and, she looked so bad, she must have been in so much pain,” Laura knocked a few more times and, Norma almost let the laughter pass the back of her hands. “Maybe she is at the bar,” The prosecutor took the chair to the side of the door with the blonde’s steps away in the hall. “Kirsch, are you still making snowmen?!” At last the lawyer burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry,” She said snapping her fingers to release the brunette. “My god, you attract like a jacket and a hanger,” The prosecutor held on to the fireplace with laughter. “Too bad I didn’t know you without all this mess, I would love a double date, there was going to be a lot to talk, the main thing would be how it would make Mina angry, even the date would turn her green with anger.”

Her laugh was pure joy, the kind that would drag everyone to laughter through osmosis, but unfortunately Carmilla was not in the least bit humorous, and she was unaware of any synonym for joy in the situation.

“I’m going to take that idiot out of the doll assembly before his hands turn dark,” The redhead opened the door, stopping on the threshold to take one last look at the bedridden vampire. “Soon you will be free, but seriously, rest.” The clarity ended when the door was closed.

Carmilla threw herself back, taking a deep breath and concentrating on her hearing. Even though she doesn’t see the redhead’s joke, nor the storm to come. Somehow it was comforting to close eyes and listen to Laura’s heart racing after a snowball down the street, to hear him jump with the girl probably slipping, falling on the curb and laughing at the Austrian clubbing video. The vampire allowed herself to smile at the thoughts. Maybe the blonde could fall more often, but it could be in her arms, lying on the green grass and, roll down from the sun, with Laura on it. Some tears flowed, but being alone there was no problem. That was a secret between her humanity and the darkness.


	17. Triangle...trial...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!  
> Hey Creampuffs, another chapter, Carm survived, but how will she deal with a Laura with none memories about her? And the executioner?

Just over six in the morning, Treffen woke up with the roosters calling the sun. Winter hides its signs even with Christmas so close. Early and Carmilla was standing by the bedroom window, waiting with closed eyes and a cute smile on her face. Weak, but increasing along the street, in small steps and slight slips, Laura’s heartbeats. The orders were to stay away.

For now. 

Norma guarded the first room of the corridor, the prosecutor would know if the renegade tried anything, the judge and the executioner were late hunting the centurion, which prolonged the separation and increased the longing, but warned the vampire, that had been almost. And get close was to put a rope around Laura’s neck - neck that Carmilla loved to bite - besides, the brunette was not there to get involved with anyone; she had to go to her own world.

Carmilla finished taking off some bandages, looking at the closet mirror. The dagger mark without healing.

Fuck!

She took worn - out jeans, and went to the backpack looking for a shirt, because Garu destroyed the one she wore.

“I can’t believe,” Sighed when no shirt come out the backpack. She turned everything on the floor. Several books fell, an extra pair of low boots, other pants - not leather - among other pieces of clothing, and some bundles full of dried moose meat. The vampire still could not feed, but a piece of dried and salted meat between her teeth was good for distracting them while she fetched any garments for the top.

She ended up rearrange her beloved books, turning over folded cloths with some dried flower, or herb from other country she had passed through. She smiled when found a leather bracelet with a metallic wing, one of her mother’s gifts. 

“Finaly, I was going to jump in the lake after you,” Grunted to the side of the fireplace where a strange aura distorted the air and Death Kiss appeared from the point edge till the cable leaning on the wall. “I’ll just have to do one thing before, like take an extra shirt and then you will take me, for real this time.” She was silent, like she really expected an answer from the inert blade.

The vampire had several boarding passes between her fingers that she had already taken, although traveling for free was easy and even fun. Sometimes she bought the ticket to carry a fresh memory, life was lonely before and after the coffin, for an instant she remembered that loneliness, when her eyes locked on a small wooden box. Her mother had given that little box with a wind rose carved on the lid. Inside was a necklace with a blue crystal pendant. She feel her fingertips freeze by the touch. Then she saw a less pleasurable package to remember, between the layers of the silk scarf, a black leather choker, adorned with silver and blood red rubies, which she once touched and tasted, especially the stone that crowned the piece, the same size as the others, but the bright 13th near the buckle was sore in Carmilla’s chest. 

“It will be better even if she doesn’t stay with me,” Said loudly, at the same time someone slammed the door. The brunette thought that was Norma, but a surprise overpowered the vampire when she found the journalist standing in the hall.

“Hi,” Laura lost her breath when she saw her, the top covered by tight bandages. “My God, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

She had just said; she had just promised, and her doom was right there.

“Are you really okay?” The journalist asked with the little breath she could take.

“I’m fine Laura, how about you?” Instinctively, the vampire touch the blonde’s face. 

“Okay, happy with this warmer weather, but Christmas is coming, so it will be freezi… Wait, how do you know my name? Have we met before?” The vampire choked. “Tell me, have we meet up around? Like? I don’t think I ever saw you in the city, before you rolled down the stairs. Wait again by that fall you end up like this?” The blonde was gaping at the dangers of Punkt’s metal stairs.

“No, we never meet and. It would have been better never saw you, by the way what kind of weirdo chases a stranger?” Carmilla raised an eyebrow.

Laura tried to babble something, but the vampire continues with no reply.

“Won’t you tell me you hunt anyone you see? You think everyone will say yes to whatever you want? Take the hint, girl,” Carm’s sarcasm mode  _ on _ . “Or maybe, you come after something else, that usually I look for at night?” She blinked.

“WHAT?! NO! I was worried about you. You are so wounded. Wait one second, you knew my name that night, and you were at the bar, it was you who came after me, you asked someone for my name! You must have rolled the ladder on purpose too, I bet how many of these bandages are fake!” Laura nudged the right below the ribs, causing Carmilla to fall flat on her face. “What an act! Worried for nothing, bye!” The blonde turned and walked away, stomping and complaining alone.

“Go! And don’t come back!” Shouted clinging to the doorframe. Don’t come back, it will be better. ”She murmured to the red, mottling the bandages.

“Oh my. Already chasing, my dear?” Asked Mina at the corridor entrance with Garu behind her. “Maybe I should be tougher, maybe making Laura fall for strong woodcutter?” Smiled with their clothes torn apart, a long hunt.

“Mina, glad you are back. I’m sorry, Laura was here at my command, I wanted to make sure the judge’s will was fulfilled. She remember nothing.” Said Norma with her head out in the hall.

“Doubting my skills, prosecutor?!” The door pressed Norma’s head with a look from the judge.

“Please, Your Excellency.” Garu held the door. “No one here can doubt your skills, I’m sure what happened was because of our delay in the centurion's execution.” Fallvalion faced Mina, who gave up on crushing Evergot’s skull.

“Fine, I’m sorry Norma, I’m exhausted, hunting the pack was a very unpleasant task. I need to relax.” She massaged her shoulders. “Garu and I are going to take a bath, this will be very pleasant.” She smiled at the prosecutor who was trying to hide the dismay. “Leave it to her.” Mina threw the cloak over the executioner to hand over a large glass filled with water and ears that probably belonged to the centurion and his colleagues.

The prosecutor caught the miserable object taking the floor as vision, the executioner turned without looking at the redhead, who pulled Mina’s cloak. But for a second they met their eyes.

“Quickly Garu I’m very stressed, I need to release this tension.” Mina called three doors after Carmilla.

Carm was almost blind for two days, but she noticed the looks between Evergot and Fallvalion. Garu steps weighed towards the smiling judge, unbuttoning her vest. The lawyer entered the room by slamming the door, as did the other two. The youngest vampire closed the door slowly, settling in with her belongings, picking up any book and opening it on a random page.

***

In the middle of the night Carmilla went to the bar to drink, at least try it. She leaned over the counter asking the bartender, hypnotized by the triad. Sipping and unfinished two fingers of vodka in less than two hours.

“Do not overdo the drink, it will still be difficult to eat anything.” Said Garu sitting at the right of the renegade.

“Shouldn’t you be with Mina?” Asked when she saw the hangman’s loose damp hair, hiding the neck bandages.

“I just got her on a train.” Replied, swallowing a dose to make the brunette jealous.

“Shouldn’t you have gone with her?”

“She was the one who wanted to go alone, I just carried the pot and bags to the train.”

“You should sleep now, you need rest, after the night, you are pale.”

“No, I’m the guardian, so I have to make sure everything is in order for the prosecutor.”

“Ah! Come on! After all, is this how you stay with her?” Carmilla stared at the dismayed hangman. “You look at each other like that, and you sleep with the judge? Give me a break.”

“Careful Carmilla, it’s not that simple. You think I’m going to Mina’s room of my will? The judge commands the executioner, there is no choice, it’s marked, and obliges me to obey.” Garu looked out of the corner of his eyes at the rogue vampire beside her.

“What a poor thing. What else? Should I pity you?”

“No, not at all. I’m just not an executioner without a judge which leads me to think now.” Fallvalion threw Carmilla on the counter, squeezing her neck. “I’m not the executioner for now, so you should be a little more careful with a simple grumpy vampire, that can kill with no previous order, especially dumb vampires like you. If you believe you have any right to criticize me, do it, you are young, but I admit to you, the only reason I am not in Evergot’s bed is because she locked herself in her room.” Gradually she was loosening her fingers .

The brunette pushed the executioner who fell backwards on a table, releasing the bandage, revealing the bites on the right side of the neck.

One flying bottle over Newman’s head - Danny’s colleague - the sound of shattering glass bounced among the drunks, and it transformed Punkt on the stage of the month’s 848th drunk war. Men glided in the air, slipped in puddles of beer, others tossed the smallest on the tables, the largest tossed the tables itself, while the bartender dodged the shattered chairs on the counter.

“It’s you and me.” Said Garu putting her back to Carmilla’s back.

“We both are nothing, I’m not like you!” Growled the brunette, dodging a bottle that hit the executioner’s back.

“You’re right,” Garu punched the face of an already toothless mechanic. “You right, we aren’t. She ended up alive. It wasn’t supposed to end up like that!” Carmilla again deflected so that the attack of the flying chair hit the executioner.

“Alive?!” Questioned the renegade advancing with a bottle of whiskey. “If weren’t for your tongue, she would be fine, she wouldn’t have been there,” The brunette snarled forward with the bottle that broke in the face of a recess soldier.

They grappled. Fallvalion held the angry brunette’s wrists. Eyes meet, anger and a strange understanding. The brunette stepped on the blonde’s knee to jump back, hitting a knee on the hangman’s chin, releasing her, taking advantage of the blow, threw the bottle aimed at the opponent’s chest.

A drunk took the bottle, falling on the floor.

“Shit!” Growled the brunette.

Garu reestablished herself, and Carmilla was already on top of her, delivering a beautiful left-hand jab. The angry vampire straddled her enemy, holding her arms with her knees, handing out several crossed ones.

“If you had said nothing! Mina wouldn’t have seen Laura! She would not have suffered. If it weren’t for you, I would have saved her!” Said it between punches.

“Do you think Mina would have stopped?” Garu looked at the enemy’s eyes, detaching her right hand and throwing it at the aggressor’s waist.

Carmilla fell forward with the gut writhing.

“You really think Mina would have stopped?” Garu asked at Carmilla’s ear, moaning in pain. “Do you think that even if you were innocent, the judge would have left you alive if it weren’t for Laura to have crossed our path?” The executioner put even more pressure on the wound below the renegade’s ribs, making her weak. In a quick movement Fallvalion gets up, sitting on the brunette on her lap. “If it weren’t for that girl and what you had, Mina would have killed and buried you with the sergeant.”

Carmilla dug her nails into the executioner’s shoulders, pulling out a grunt of pain. She threw the renegade on the floor and standing over the renegade’s thighs.

“Mina wouldn’t have stopped, no, she hates your mother and hates you even more for having Laura, she hates everything that can love like she can’t,” A table fell on them both, Fallvalion bent down protecting the renegade still moaning in pain. “It’s not just my life that is at risk if I try to resist the judge’s control,” Garu stood up, pulling the brunette together and defending her from Kirsch trying to grab her. The boy flies out the window with a kick from the blonde.

Another bottle flew at the executioner, but Carmilla defended it and threw the bottle against the drunk. Again, back to back.

“I won’t thank you.” Said the brunette.

“I will not apologize.” Replied the blonde.

Both amid the chaos of alcohol, both destroyed by Mina, but both struggling to live that life.

***

The sun had just come out of the horizon, the wind dancing in a gentle icy breeze between passersby at the train station, Norma walked beside Carmilla tying her coat too big - the executioner’s cloak given as a gift by the prosecutor herself - Garu walked further back with the bags.

The silence between them was a little uncomfortable, there was no issue, and that was not a problem, since the renegade was thirsty for the farewell to the court, but the discomfort came from the prosecutor and the executioner who were not looking at each other. The customs guard looked nervous, looking at his pocket watch every three minutes, his mustache wet with sweat and his nervous hands tightening the luggage handles.

“Things seem getting bad,” Fallvalion said with the scene of the guards. “So it is better to embark today.”

“It’s not just for that,” Norma said giving a bump on the shoulder of the blonde entering the train.

“Jeez. Good luck.” Said Carm.

“There’s no use, she’ll be like this for another half century,” Sighed Garu adjusting Carmilla’s scarf. “Too big, but it’s better than being naked, I left a bag of mine in your closet,” Fallvalion embarked, but she was kicked out by Norma hurried to give the renegade a hug.

“Take it,” The redhead put folded paper in the pocket of Carmilla’s cloak. “She’s very good and already had your measurements, go there in a few weeks.”

“All aboard!” Shouted the train driver.

“Let’s go Fallvalion, it’s not time to rest!”

“I’m not resting, you’re the one above me!” Grunted the executioner with the prosecutor stepping on her back.

The train left under the renegade’s gaze until it disappeared into the distant forest. Carmilla turned and saw the afflicted customs guards. Some soldiers in gray uniforms were issuing new orders for boarding and disembarking.

***

“She never fails,” Smiled Carm sitting at Punkt stairs listening to Laura’s heart beats, always in the same hurry and stumbles, insisting on carrying more that she could take.

Two days since the departure of the court. Everything was calmer now. Any creature in the vicinity had been silent, it was barely noticeable the presence of other nocturnal, and it was good for the vampire to relax, her body still wounded. But she missed her. Curiously, what should have passed like water under a bridge was in her like a dam of dry leaves and branches, flooding the water. Not like other times, this girl still in her. In the past few days it has become common for the renegade to lose herself in thoughts, Laura smiling, Laura worried, Laura undressed - the last one made Carmilla gasp with desire - but it was inevitable, listening to the Galician’s heart took her body from untimely reactions.

On one of these days, absorbed in any good morning, or preventing her more logical thoughts, the brunette walked up the main street, wanted to see her, even if from a distance, what would be wrong with that? She leaned against the end of an alley near the Hollis tailor shop, as Laura always waddled with the bags, playing with her balance on the curb and taking a slide to fall sitting down.

The slight rush for the fall made Carmilla smile for no reason, as well warmed her chest. Laura wore her blue cloak, her hair in a braid left over her back, and a thick denim overalls covered her legs into her snow boots.

Perhaps the vampire let her laugh pass her teeth to the other side of the street, for when Laura opened the stuck door, she aimed exactly the alley's direction, but noticing nothing she entered the store and locked the door.

“Miss Carmilla!” Shouted a young man jumping to grab the vampire. “You still here. That blonde woman took your backpack and said you were going to leave town, without saying goodbye,” Euphoric the boy pulled on her cloak and everything more cloth he could grab. He was wearing a coat that was a little tight on his shoulders, the hair tucked into a worn brown hat.

“Hey calm down,” The brunette hardly recognized him, without the grimy clothes and soot on his face.

“Don’t tell me you had an amnesia like miss Perry or Dr. LaFontaine.”

“Amnesia?”

“Yeah, it seems like everyone at the inn forgot what they had for dinner, I never forget, or what I eat at the breakfast, but they don’t remember even the size of their own pants, they don’t remember you miss,” He said disgusted. “I don’t know what happened to them. Tell me has something to do with that red-haired girl and the other with the gummy snake face?”

“Were you there? And remember?” Carmilla perceived sincerity in Guto’s look without the hair in front. She can see the boy’s eyes, violet.

“I remember everything, almost everything, it was strange when that redhead held me, I felt sleep,” It was nothing much to talk about, but the young man seems to hold Castille blood, an ancient lineage of humans not so human. “So I slept, and when I woke up, everything was normal, except that no one remembers you, especially Laura.”

“Like this?”

“She was calm, until the other day when she got angry with a client, she asked about three hundred questions from you, but then she didn’t understand what I was saying, because she remembered nothing.”

“Did she?” It could be, if a boy like Guto outmaneuvered Mina Halker. “You don’t have things to do boy?”

“Miss Perry’s flour for cookies!” He said, slapping his palm on his forehead and running, shaking a shopping list in his hand.

Carmilla stopped to think, and when she realized she was inside the tailoring with the door creaking with rust.

“We aren’t open. You?” Laura brake in front of the vampire, crushing the knob between her fingers.

“Laura,” She called and in that simple call the blonde’s legs failed, before she could answer Carmilla jumped the counter taking the other in her arms.

“Carmilla? What are you doing?” Laura’s voice failed, dropping the folders of drawings on the floor. An endless tide of consent held their gaze. The vampire’s arms pulled the blonde as close as possible, with both feeling each other’s breath. Carmilla closed her eyes, killing a short distance from the blonde’s mouth.

It was a journalist’s step back; it was a vampire’s step forward. Laura’s breathless breath and her heart racing. Carmilla surrounded the girl, literally melting with her back against the counter, approached pasting her foreheads, without looking away from the mesmerizing look she was giving and also receiving. The Galician’s eyes twinkled in another color.

The vampire was almost revealed in the color of her eyes, and in the stark desire to devour her right there, it would be easy, even if she resisted, but there was a none need for strength, because the girl in her arms was handed out, not even Carmilla knew how to explain it, but she wanted it anyway. They remained in that hypnotic exchange for another endless minute, when the instinct spoke louder, claiming what was hers and, the brunette’s lips went down to the blonde’s neck, who lost her strength having to support her upper body over the counter hanging the head back, exhaling the chest air pumping.

_ Her veins ... the heart ... the body ... the blood ... the heat ... everything ... I want everything, _ thought the vampire while treading timid kisses on the journalist’s neck, before being more than ready to mark the skin on your lips.

“Laura, where did you get these moose leather supports? Who broke the latch?” LaF was examining the dented knob. Until your attention turns to the crackling sound on the counter. “It’s everything okay?” Asked to the blonde’s red face and the brunette two steps to the side rubbing her cheek - Laura’s fingerprints.

“They break the latch.”

“What?!”

“I wonder, rust may have helped, but…”

“Well, see you,” Carmilla said, passing between them.

“Wait,” Laura tried to call, but she got stuck by Mr. Galiger, and his three daughters’ dresses that resembled a twenty-tier cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Soldiers, how it's going?  
> Carm and Laura again?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Soldiers, how it's going?  
> My first try as a fanfic writer, hope that you creampuffs enjoy it.  
> As always a big wolf hug. And see you in the next ONE MORE NIGHT.


End file.
